Weston General Hospital - Public or Private? - Useful Documents

Since November 2012 Weston Area Health NHS Trust has been examining its future. The outcome will have a major impact on local NHS services, and the 2000 staff who are currently employed by the Trust. The Trust has already accepted that as one of the smallest Hospital Trusts in the country it does not have the critical mass of clinically and financially sustainable services to become a standalone NHS Foundation Trust. An early option to establish an integrated care organisation was explored but has now been abandoned as unviable. The Trust is now looking at the option of partnering with another NHS organisation or a private healthcare provider. The Trust has already placed an advert in the European Journal seeking expressions of interest from other NHS providers and private companies to run the hospital, and has received eleven replies. As a result the Trust has established a procurement project. It has appointed a firm of private management consultants and a firm of legal advisors to help with the procurement process. A draft timetable suggests that the procurement process will take around 12 months to complete. The outcome could be that a private company will be awarded the contract to run Weston Hospital in 2014.

So far there is very little information publicly available. If you look on the Trust's website all you will find is a press release issued in February.

UNISON and the other trade unions representing staff at the Hospital will be requesting further information, along the lines of the documents published by George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, who are going through a similar process. But here are some useful documents.

Weston Hospital press statement announcing the procurement project:
http://www.waht.nhs.uk/en-GB/About-The-Trust/News-and-Media/Trust-Statements-and-Key-Messages/Procurement-Project-at-Weston-Area-Health-NHS-Trust/

PIN notice - advertising Weston Hospital out to the market for expressions of interest:
http://england.unitedkingdom-tenders.co.uk/37716_Expressions_of_Interest_2013_Weston

George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton are going through a similar process, but have published many of the documents on their website:
http://www.geh.nhs.uk/about-us/intoroduction-to-the-securing-a-sustainable-future-project/

Also relevant currently are:

National Audit Office report on the Franchising of Hinchingbrooke Hospital:
http://www.nao.org.uk/report/the-franchising-of-hinchingbrooke-health-care-nhs-trust/

Public Accounts Committee report on the Franchising of Hinchingbrooke Hospital:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/franchising-hinchingbrooke-peterborough-stamford-hospitals/

We ask anyone with an interest in keeping Weston Hospital public to contact the North Somerset branch of UNISON by email: unison@n-somerset.gov.uk or phone 01934 634759.