Health, Best Practice Group 8

Christie Foundation Trust, a specialist cancer hospital, is considering using their partnership with the private sector to open branded treatment and diagnostic centres of their own, nationwide. Should the plan be realised, Christie could become the first of many FTs to develop national ‘chains’ in partnerships with the private sector.

The NHS reforms, and ‘any qualified provider’, offered the trust the opportunity to expand beyond their regional boundaries, utilising their collaboration with the private hospital group HCA International, and become a national ‘chain of providers’, incorporating other stages of treatment such as diagnostics, said CEO Caroline Shaw.

Many specialist trusts, including the Christie, already run satellite units on the sites of many NHS providers; yet the joint venture with HCA will enable Christie to open standalone centres in new areas. These centres will initially focus on private patients, but could offer their services to NHS commissioners too, as the commissioning policies develop.

When challenged that this new venture might financially risk traditional NHS diagnostics providers, Shaw argued it will reduce costs and improve patient care. Referrals to Christie, as a tertiary care provider, must go through a secondary care provider, and are lengthy and cumbersome. The new venture will enable Christie to work with GPs and Clinical commissioning groups to diagnose patients directly and refer them to the right provider, potentially shortening the clinical pathway. Shaw insisted Christie will refer as well, and will not take over all the surgery themselves. She said the new initiative “is about being innovative and using [any qualified provider] to the best advantage of our patients and staff”, and will enable more people to access top quality care.

Christie are not alone thinking along these lines; other joint ventures between foundation trusts and private sector are being planned, often with an eye on geographical expansion. These will mean FTs with a strong brand will no longer serve only their local area.

[HSJ, 18th August]

Is this an answer to the ‘postcode lottery’? Could these developments help the NHS to better consider its care supply chain?