Second NHS hospital in financial difficulty is put out to tender

A second NHS hospital trust in England could be franchised out to a private company after the government approved plans for an open market tender to source a partner for the George Eliot Hospital in Warwickshire.

Following the analysis of a business case, the NHS Trust Development Authority concluded that an open procurement process should commence, which will lead to the trust being merged or acquired by another NHS trust, or “a franchise that may be a non-NHS organisation.”

If the bid …