The controversial Cambridgeshire older people’s services contract collapsed because the provider expected to be paid substantially more than had been agreed in the deal, an audit has found.
The investigation into one of the largest deals ever awarded for NHS clinical services has also raised serious questions over the quality of advice received by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group.
UnitingCare Partnership’s contract was worth £725m over five years. The contract, which was awarded to UnitingCare Partnership in November 2014, was worth £725m over five years, and collapsed after just eight months of operation in December.
UnitingCare was a limited liability partnership jointly owned by two local trusts: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, and Cambridge University Hospitals FT.
An audit by West Midlands Ambulance Service Foundation Trust, carried out on behalf of the CCG, found that one month into the contract the provider asked for an extra £34.3m for the year. This would have been worth 23 per cent of the £152m contract value for the first year of the contract…read more
