Fast track surgery supplier chosen
pharmafile | February 19, 2004 | News story | |Â Â Â
Mercury Healthcare has been chosen as the preferred supplier to run five new NHS fast-track surgery centres.
Routine general surgery will be handled at the new sites to reduce the workload of existing NHS facilities and help them treat more patients.
Mercury Healthcare will run five treatment centres across the South East in Haywards Heath, Havant, Medway, Portsmouth and High Wycombe.
As well as general surgery, the centres will perform trauma, orthopaedic and diagnostic procedures on around 19,000 NHS patients each year for a five year contract period starting from April 2005.
In total, 25 treatment centres are to be run by commercial contractors are planned to complement the 25 NHS-run centres that have already been established.
Health Minister Stephen Ladyman said: "The NHS is growing quickly, but we need more capacity to make sure hat patients are treated as quickly as possible.
"That is why, on top of NHS-run treatment centres and the biggest hospital building programme in the history of the NHS, we are working with the independent sector to provide even more operations and staff."
Once all the treatment centres have been set up the DoH expects them to conduct 250,00 operations every year to contribute to its targets to reduce waiting times for operations to less than six months by December next year.
Meanwhile, Mercury has lost its preferred bidder status for a series of 10 treatment centres elsewhere in the country to another provider Capio UK, after the DoH decided the British-based company would be more suitable after scrutinising the competing offers.
Related Articles
Friday, September 12, 2003
