A Full Business Case will be presented to the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Board and the Full Council at a public meeting this Thursday, 10th November, seeking its approval to award a seven year ‘prime provider’ contract to Virgin Care to coordinate over 200 health and care services in people’s homes and communities.

As the prime provider, Virgin Care would have the overall responsibility for the delivery of services, but will also subcontract some services to other organisations and charities with specialist skills.

The CCG and the Council followed a rigorous process of testing and evaluation involving service users, carers and subject matter experts, which led to Virgin Care being selected as the preferred bidder for the contract in August 2016, but not

everyone has been happy with the announcement that a private company is preferred, as opposed to Sirona, a not-for-profit organisation, which has bases at Paulton Hospital and St Martin’s Hospital, Bath.

Dr Ian Orpen, a local GP and Clinical Chair of the CCG said: “Our engagement with the local community demonstrated that we have a wealth of community organisations in B&NES like Age UK and the Village Agents doing excellent work to

improve the health and wellbeing of the local population.

“Appointing Virgin Care as a prime provider will not replace these organisations. It will make their job easier, by giving them access to additional resources and technology to help them work together more effectively and deliver better outcomes for local people.”

Cllr Vic Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health at the Council, added: “Bath and North East Somerset has long been a national leader in joining up NHS and Council services to provide high quality and compassionate care for local people.

However, the rising demand from our ageing population means our current model is no longer sustainable and we must change the way we deliver services.”

“We have followed a very robust process in line with Government guidelines and we are confident that Virgin Care is the best organisation to deliver the improvements that local people have asked us for.”

In its report, the Council and the CCG note that ‘the creation of a prime provider for community services is a bold and transformational step. However, services cannot continue to be delivered in the same way because in the long-term, this is unaffordable, unsustainable and most importantly, will not deliver the preventative, collaborative and personalised service that local people and professionals have asked for.

‘Virgin Care has been selected as preferred bidder because they have an ambitious but realistic plan for transforming local services so that people experience care that is more personalised, more coordinated and focussed on prevention and self care’.

The CCG is expecting to deliver recurring savings of between £6m and £7m a year over the next four years, and a recurring savings target of £24m and a 10% efficiency saving requirement. It is expected that local Government funding will be reduced by around 40% over the next four years. In its report, it is stated that the changeover is likely to cost around £540,000. If the contract goes ahead, Virgin Care will take over services from 1st April 2017 for seven years, with an option for the contract to be extended for a further three years from 31st March 2024.

As part of its plans, Virgin Care is promising to organise community services around locality hubs, aligned with GP practices, with teams that will talk to each other on a daily basis to agree coordinated plans. There will also be a care coordination centre open seven days a week, providing a single point of contact for those in need of support, their families and the professionals involved in their care.

Campaigners against the move have called for the decision to be deferred pending the disclosure of more information from Virgin Care. Peter Sas, who has over ten years’ experience in the NHS, including community healthcare trusts, has submitted a

report to those attending the meeting questioning how secure and accessible Virgin Care’s technology will be and to ensure that they receive the signed consent of

patients whose records need to be transferred. He also asks that claims made by Virgin Care in its plans be further scrutinised before the contract is awarded.