Private companies including AXA and BUPA have been awarded preferential supplier status to assist PCTs in their strategic planning and commissioning of services.
In total, the fourteen separate firms known as the Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners, or FESC, aim to create a pool of private sector expertise for PCTs to draw on, instead of individual trusts attempting to source their own.
The PCTs will not be obliged to use these services, but the approved list will make easier the process of locating private sector expertise.
Direction
Health minister Ivan Lewis said: "This new guidance will allow PCTs to benefit from a bank of knowledge already built up through the Department of Health procurement process. PCTs will be able to work with organisations that are already known and trusted, which will enable them to concentrate their efforts and expertise on providing patient care.”
Several PCTs have expressed interest in using the FESC, including Ashton Leigh & Wigan PCT, Cambridgeshire PCT, East of England SHA, Hampshire PCT, Hillingdon PCT, North East Lincolnshire PCT, and a West Midlands consortium of PCTs called the Commissioning Business Support Agency.
October 19, 2007
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