You may already be aware of the Bedford Clinical Commissioning Group (BCCG) announcement in August 2013 to bring in a private sector led consortium, headed by Circle Health, to take over the provision of the musculoskeletal service, a 5yr £120m contract, part of which is Horizon Health Choices a company run by 25 north Bedfordshire GP practices. The consortium will not only be managing the budget, but will also be setting the threshold for access to services and delivering and resourcing services. It is unclear what plans if any BCCG has to monitor the services provided under the new contract, and with existing NHS services being effectively replaced by private providers, we are left to guess what options BCCG might have to intervene in the event of service failure, or serious complaints, over quality of care.

This contract has far reaching implications to local services since it has been signed over to a private company. The income that is generated from these and other services needs to be going into Bedford Hospital to help offset some of the £8.2m debt rather than making profit for a private company. This is one of many changes that Bedford faces and if it is allowed to continue we could see Bedford Hospital being downgraded to no more than a satellite clinic with services being moved away to surrounding hospitals; 17 miles or more away.

What next for Bedford?
UNISON is aware that the BCCG has been running some stakeholder engagement which will inform the options on the future of the health services for Bedford. UNISON believes that more could be done to engage people over this issue, even at this early stage.

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