NHS Marketisation Monitoring News

Issue #3 (25/10/2014)
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Welcome!
This newsletter aims to update its readers on the latest news on the marketisation of services within the
NHS. A database of all 147 NHS Foundation Trusts has been created and FoI requests, on the out-sourcing
of contracts, has been made to each Trust. The newsletter will be published weekly and it will list the latest
information received from Trusts.
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Latest News!
Congratulations to West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for providing the most comprehensive data so far to
a FoI request on out-sourced contracts in 2013-14. The response consisted of two spreadsheets containing
details of:
1. Trust Project Reference Number
2. Description of Project
3. Number of Tenders Sent Out
4. Number of Tenders Received
5. Successful Contractor
6. Value of Contract
Perhaps this should be the basis of all future FoI requests? Begs the question: if they can do it, why not the
others?
A response from Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, interestingly, flags up the increasing use of
Parking Eye: https://www.parkingeye.co.uk/ to manage car parking space through the use of CCTV to
monitor users payment.
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust have significantly exceeded the 20 working days allowed to
respond to a FoI request, as a result, they have now received the following notification:
As you have failed to respond to my FoI request of 09/09/2014 and a subsequent reminder, I believe the
Trust is in breach of Section 1 of the FOI Act which provides: (1) Any person making a request for
information to a public authority is entitled
(a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds the information of the description
specified in the request, and
(b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.
I, therefore, respectfully, offer you seven working days to respond.
In the event of no response or if this response is not satisfactory, I reserve my right to register a review with
the Information Commissioner.
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Responses received, in the last week, to the FoI request: Please could you provide a list of all service
contracts awarded for what and to whom during 2013/2014 including maintenance, domestic, clinical,
administrative, medical, care, consultancy and any other services?
Trust: Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Significant list of service contracts.
Trust: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Short list of what appear to be maintenance services.
Trust: Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Spreadsheet of more than 300 maintenance contracts
NHS_Marketisation_News Dr. Geoffrey A. Walker 01/12/201401/12/2014

Trust: Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Comments: List of more than 60 service and maintenance contracts.
Trust: West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: The most comprehensive data provided so far. Two spreadsheets containing details of Project
Reference No, Description of Project, Number of Tenders sent out, Number of tenders received, Awarded
To and Value!
Trust: 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Only 3 contracts awarded during 2013/14
Trust: The Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Very comprehensive list of approximately 100 contracts.
Trust: South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Response letter: The Trust has engaged other services. However, they have been against
national contracts and therefore were not awarded by our Trust, simply used by us.
Trust: Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Very detailed response
Trust: Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Helpful list of 39 contracts listed A-Z by name of contractor
Trust: Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: List of 234 contracts
Trust: Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Partial response only. Covering letter states: From our preliminary assessment, we have
estimated that it will cost more than the appropriate limit to consider your request.
Trust: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Tabulated list of 7 contracts
Trust: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Tabulated list of maintenance service contracts
Trust: North East London NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Response - With regard to your recent FOI request, we can only provide information which is
easily and readily available. It will not be possible to easily provide you a list of all service contracts the
Trust awarded in the financial year 2013/14 without carrying out a full audit of the Trust which will take
longer than 30 days, and will cost a substantial sum. The reason for this is that we do hold a list of all
service contracts let by way of a tender (as they are over a certain value), or those let through a mini
competition under a framework. What we do not hold is a list of all contracts let on a local basis (e.g.
service contracts for individual photocopiers etc) or low-value contracts. Requested a list of easily and
readily available data.
Trust: Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Extensive list of contracts showing services contracted from BUPA and a range of hospitals and
trusts.
Trust: Humber NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: List contains date contract was awarded.
NHS_Marketisation_News Dr. Geoffrey A. Walker 01/12/201401/12/2014

Trust: Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Comments: Comprehensive list of contracts.
Trust: Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Interestingly, flags up the increasing use of Parking Eye: https://www.parkingeye.co.uk/ to
manage car parking space through the use of CCTV to monitor users payment. Is this covert use of CCTV?
Trust: Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: List of service contracts
Trust: Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: Short list of maintenance contracts
Trust: Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: List of 45 contracts
Trust: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Comments: List of maintenance contracts
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If you would like to view the response of an individual Trust then please email
Geoff Walker (geoffreyawalker@msn.com)
with the name of the Trust(s) whose response you require.
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NHS_Marketisation_News Dr. Geoffrey A. Walker 01/12/201401/12/2014