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Health bosses sign £2.7m contract with consulting firm to create ACS

Health bosses sign £2.7m contract with consulting firm to create ACS
By Carolyn Wickware
23 August 2017



Nottingham and Nottinghamshire sustainability and transformation partnership has awarded a £2.7m contract to a private consulting firm to help set up an accountable care system.

The STP has contracted Centene UK to help set up the accountable care system in Greater Nottingham.

The contract was commissioned through Capita, which managed the competitive procurment process as part of the NHS Lead provider framework, a commissioning support network. 

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire sustainability and transformation partnership has awarded a £2.7m contract to a private consulting firm to help set up an accountable care system.

The STP has contracted Centene UK to help set up the accountable care system in Greater Nottingham.

The contract was commissioned through Capita, which managed the competitive procurment process as part of the NHS Lead provider framework, a commissioning support network. 

According to the STP, Centene UK specialises in ‘systems and pathways’ and will provide ‘specific advice on developing new service models and Information Management and Technology’.

The £2.7m contract for 2017/18 will be funded by the STP through resources provided by NHS England.

In June, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire STP was chosen as one of eight areas to be chosen by NHS England to progress into accountable care systems.

Dr Stephen Shortt, lead for in Greater Nottingham ACS, said the ACS will give patients ‘more joined-up experience of healthcare, hospital care, mental health care and social care’.

He said: ‘The scale of transformation is unprecedented in England, but it has been achieved by health systems in other parts of the world such as Europe.

‘That’s why we have to take this opportunity to learn from organisations with international experience of transformation, such as Centene’s work with Ribera Salud on the internationally renowned Alzira model in Valencia, Spain.

‘Centene UK is not a healthcare provider but will advise us on the logistics of setting up a shared health and care system.’

He added that the STP worked with Centene UK in 2016 ‘to identify ways that the different health and care organisations in Greater Nottingham could be brought together’.

He said using the private firms will give the ACS ‘the best chase of success’ as the current healthcare team lacks the ‘real-life experience’ of building a system ‘on a scale and at a pace that hasn’t been achieved in England before’.

Centene UK refused to comment on its role in setting up the ACS.

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