Private companies won 70% of contracts awarded by England’s commissioning groups in opening months

Nearly 70% of contracts for NHS services awarded since the English government’s healthcare reorganisation came into force have been won by private firms, a new analysis shows.

The changes, enacted in April 2013, require clinical commissioning groups in England either to place NHS clinical services out to tender or to allow “any qualified provider” to bid to run a specific service, unless commissioners can demonstrate that only one particular provider is able to run that service.1

The policy, set out in section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, was designed to improve patient choice by increasing the range of provision for services such as diagnostics and community healthcare. …