Hinchingbrooke Hospital privatization – a first in UK healthcare

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDFeb 2 2012

Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire becomes the first NHS hospital to be run entirely by a private company called Circle. This new company is co-owned by its employees. The new administration has taken on the previous debt and it intends to make the hospital into one of the top ten in the country.

Earlier under the previous NHS management on an annual turnover of £90m they ran up debts of £39m. Independent firm Circle signed a reported 10-year, £1 billion deal to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital in November, becoming the first non-state provider to run an entire hospital.

Circle chief executive Ali Parsa said, “This hospital was branded in the House of Commons as a financial and clinical basket case. We want to make it a top 10 District General within two years. If we can do that it is great news for local people.”

The company has drawn up a 16-point plan with staff to improve care and cut waste. Under the plan, nurses will change the way they work to increase the amount of time they spend with patients. And staff will be empowered to make decisions on how care is organized. Operating theatres are being re-organized so that four patients can have surgery in the time that it used to take to operate on three. And patient stays on the wards are also being reduced, saving 3,000 bed-days each year. Circle will run patient services for 10 years. Staff will remain NHS employees and the buildings will remain part of the NHS estate.

Dr Stephen Dunn, director of policy and strategy at NHS Midlands and East said, “With the challenges the NHS now faces, new solutions are needed so services can be provided how and where patients want them, but at a cost which taxpayers can afford. Today heralds just that, a new chapter in creativity and partnership working.”

But Phil Gooden of Unison said, “We oppose a private company running an NHS service. Private companies have shareholders who want a profit. And that is not what the NHS is about.”

The move to bring in Circle met with criticism last year. Shadow health minister Liz Kendall said the firm lacked experience of running Accident and Emergency or maternity services. “Patients and the public will be deeply worried that this morning they have seen this government's vision for the future of the NHS, with the wholesale transfer of the management of entire hospitals to the private sector,” she said.