Privately managed NHS trust will survive despite slow progress in cutting deficit, Circle says

The first ever NHS trust in England to be franchised out to the private sector will succeed in the long term, despite making much slower than expected progress in cutting its large deficit, MPs have been assured.

Witnesses gave several such assurances during an angry evidence session of the parliamentary Public Accounts committee on 10 December as part of its inquiry into franchising of NHS trusts, but the committee said that it was still concerned about wasted public money.

In February this year the management of Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust in Cambridgeshire was franchised out to the private company Circle for 10 years—a first for the NHS—after the trust …