Children’s care services could go to Virgin

Concerns have been raised over the possibility that Bristol’s children’s mental health services could fall into the hands of Virgin Care.

The contract is being put out to tender to run Bristol’s Children’s Community Health Partnership (CCHP), which provides all of the community child health and child and adolescent mental health services for Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

Virgin Care and Sirona Care & Health have been shortlisted by the The Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group to take on the one year interim contract worth £28 million.

Campaign group Protest CCHP said it was concerned private groups wanted to make profit out of “our most vulnerable children”.

The North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) have run the CCHP from April 2009 after securing a £150 million contract, the largest ever tendering process for clinical services in the UK at that time.

But the trust announced it would cease provision from March 2016 and now the process has begun of securing a new service provider for the interim period April 2016 to March 2017. A provider will then be awarded a five year contract in September 2017.  

The campaign group Protect CCHP has been mounted by local people, including service users and NHS staff, who are concerned that privatisation will compromise the quality of care children and young people in Bristol and South Gloucestershire will receive. They are also critical of the move as a step closer to a US-style, for-profit healthcare system.

“We are concerned that the Bristol CCG has invited private firms to make a profit out of our most vulnerable people, children” said Dr Charlotte Paterson, from the campaign group Protect Our NHS.

“We are also particularly concerned that Virgin has been shortlisted as they do not have a base in Bristol and do not know the area. Bristol is a complicated site and a service provider needs to have local knowledge to provide integrated services.”

Nathan Filer, an award-winning Bristol novelist and former mental health nurse, has backed the campaign. Nathan’s debut 2013 novel The Shock of the Fall, which describes the life of a young man with schizophrenia, garnered widespread acclaim and won several major awards.

“The concern I share with many others is that the motives of private companies to turn a profit mightn’t be aligned with what is best for patients,” he told the Bristol Cable.

“A problem often highlighted by users of mental health services is a lack of continuity in care…this is a concern across all mental health care, but is especially worrying where young people are involved.”

In the statement released this week detailing the shortlisted providers, the Bristol CCG maintained that “the safety of the service is of paramount importance to us and we will ensure the service is delivered to the highest possible standards”.

Protect CCHP have set up a 38 Degrees petition and are to hold a demonstration with Protect Our NHS at 12:30pm on Wednesday August 26, starting at St James Barton roundabout and walking to the Bristol CCG offices at South Plaza, Marlborough Street. 

Following the Health and Social Care Act 2012, which was brought in by the coalition Government and came into effect 1 April 2013, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities were disbanded and replaced with clinical commissioning groups taking control of NHS budget and commissioning local services.

NHS contracts are open to the voluntary and private sectors, with commissioning through competitive tendering.