NHS Hull in landmark move

In what is regarded by many within the industry as being a landmark move, NHS Hull has become the first trust in England to transfer its entire provider arm over to a community interest company.

The trust’s provider services arm has been operating at arms-length from the commissioning organisation for the last 18 months, but as of the 1st of this month services such as health visiting and district nursing have been officially delivered by a community interest company known as the City Health Care Partnership CIC (CHCP).

This radical change has been made in an effort to allow the trust to focus solely on its commissioning role, and to enable front-line health workers to focus more on patient care and service development. As a result, around 1,200 staff have formally transfer to CHCP under protected terms and conditions and, as a community interest company, the new organisation says it will reinvest any surpluses it makes into staff and service development and the wider community.

“The process of separating our commissioning and provider services hasn’t always been easy and we thank all our staff for their patience and understanding during this time,” commented NHS Hull’s chief executive, Christopher Long. “As far as patients and the public are concerned, they will see no immediate difference in the continuity or quality of care they receive once the separation takes place.