Community health trust

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As part of the English NHS programme of separating the provision of services from commissioning known as Transforming Community Services [1] a number of community health trusts were established when these services were separated from primary care trusts.

This was one of a number of options taken. In some places community services were transferred to an existing mental health trust or hospital trust. [2] In South West England there was considerable pressure for staff to establish social enterprises such as Peninsula Community Health to take on these services.

Campaigners in Gloucestershire successfully challenged the decision [3] to establish a social enterprise to provide community health services there in 2012.

Contracts to run NHS community services are subject to competitive tendering processes under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, so it is not clear whether these organisations will survive. The NHS community health services sector, not including mental health services, is said to be worth £9.7 billion - about 10% of the entire NHS budget. This is the sector in which competition from private providers such as Virgin Healthcare and Serco is most intense. [4] There is a great deal of pressure to move NHS services out of hospitals and into the community, but up to now most of these services have been funded by block contracts. There are measures of activity but no outcome measures and no NHS tariff, so there is no financial incentive for providers to ensure services are effective. As of 2016 it remains to be seen what impact the instigation of Any Qualified Provider contracts will have on this sector. [5]

Community services have been repeatedly reorganised since the abolition of district health authorities in 1996. Established as NHS trusts, they were under the same imperative to become NHS foundation trusts as existing trusts, but it seems unlikely that many of them will be able to pass the tests in their present form.[ citation needed ]

Community healthcare trusts may provide services including:

Free-standing community health trusts existing in 2013

Related Research Articles

Healthcare in England is mainly provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents in England, that is free at the point of use. The body is one of four forming the UK National Health Service as health is a devolved matter; there are differences with the provisions for healthcare elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in England it is overseen by NHS England. Though the public system dominates healthcare provision in England, private health care and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available for those willing and able to pay.

Healthcare in the city of Bristol, England and the surrounding area is largely provided by the National Health Service (NHS). Until July 2022, this was provided through the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire clinical commissioning group. Facilities include a large teaching hospital – Bristol Royal Infirmary – which offers nationally commissioned specialist cardiac, cancer and children's services from its city-centre campus to patients in the southwest of England and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinical commissioning group</span> Healthcare organisation in the United Kingdom

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished, and replaced by Integrated care systems as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, based in Nottinghamshire, England, manages the UK’s largest and most integrated Forensic High Secure facility Rampton Hospital near Retford, High Secure Women’s, High Secure Deaf, High Secure Learning Disability and Autistic as well as High Secure Men’s Mental Health), two medium secure units, Arnold Lodge in Leicester and Wathwood Hospital in Rotherham, and a low Secure Unit, the Wells Road Centre at Mapperley in Nottingham.

Out-of-hours services are the arrangements to provide access to healthcare at times when General Practitioner surgeries are closed; in the United Kingdom this is normally between 6.30pm and 8am, at weekends, at Bank Holidays and sometimes if the practice is closed for educational sessions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare in Kent</span>

Healthcare in Kent has, from 1 July 2022, been mainly the responsibility of the Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board. Certain specialised services are directly commissioned by NHS England, coordinated through the South East integrated regional team. Some NHS England structures are aligned on a Kent and Medway basis, others on a South East basis and there is liaison with London to provide many tertiary healthcare services.

Sirona care & health CIC is a Community Interest Company based in Bath, Somerset which provides publicly funded health and social care services.

Healthcare in Somerset, England was the responsibility of three clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) until July 2022. These covered the ceremonial county of Somerset, which comprises the areas governed by the three unitary authorities of Somerset, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset.

Transforming Community Services was a programme in the English NHS which operated from 2008 at a national level and continued during the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Although the rhetoric of the programme was about improving the quality of community services the reality was mostly concerned with structural changes.

Healthcare in Cornwall was until July 2022 the responsibility of Kernow clinical commissioning group, until it got replaced by Integrated care system, as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022. As far as the NHS is concerned, Cornwall includes the Isles of Scilly.

Beacon UK was a private provider of mental health services launched in the UK in September 2011 by Dr Emma Stanton, a practising NHS psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private healthcare in the United Kingdom</span>

Private healthcare in the UK, where universal state-funded healthcare is provided by the National Health Service, is a niche market.

Healthcare in Gloucestershire was the responsibility of two clinical commissioning groups, covering Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, until July 2022. The health economy of Gloucestershire has always been linked with that of Bristol.

Healthcare in Wiltshire, England, is the responsibility of the integrated care board (ICB) for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire.

Livewell Southwest, formerly known as Plymouth Community Healthcare is a community interest company established under the Transforming Community Services programme in 2011.

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, commonly referred to as HCT, is an NHS organisation providing adult and children's community health services, such as district nursing and health visiting, across Hertfordshire. It also provides some services in West Essex, in prisons and specialist care to a population of more than 1.1 million.

Bristol Community Health was a Community Interest Company providing community health trust services to the people of Bristol, England, established under the Transforming Community Services initiative. It comprises the community services previously run by Bristol Primary Care Trust.

Healthcare in Hertfordshire was the responsibility of the Herts Valleys, East, and North Hertfordshire clinical commissioning groups until July 2022.

The private provision of NHS services has been considered a controversial topic since the early 1990s. Keep Our NHS Public, NHS Support Federation and other groups have campaigned against the threat of privatisation, largely in England.

References

  1. ↑ "Transforming Community Services". Department of Health. Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Transforming Community Services: PCTs step closer to deciding fate of provider arms". Health Service Journal. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Stroudagainstcuts.co.uk".
  4. ↑ "Community trusts devise plan to 'level playing field'". Health Service Journal. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Walumbe, Jackie; Swinglehurst, Deborah; Shaw, Sara (1 February 2016). "Any qualified provider: a qualitative case study of one community NHS Trust's response". BMJ Open. 6 (2): e009789. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009789 . ISSN   2044-6055. PMC   4769419 . PMID   26908521.
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