HSJ reports that NHS England is assessing the viability of establishing an NHS-owned consortium to bring some of the diagnostic work currently being done for profit in the private sector back into the health service.
Alexandra Pinches told the King’s Fund diagnostics conference: “A lot of people that have been doing outsourcing are saying: ‘Why can’t you do an external consortium for us? Some sort of framework where we can earn the money but isn’t also going into someone else’s pocket.’”
There are already frameworks for outsourcing radiology and other diagnostic services, but there is no national NHS-owned provider for it, in the same way NHS Professionals works in the agency staff market.
Ms Pinches added that a meeting between NHSE and the private sector on joint venture arrangements was also expected soon.
Full story in the HSJ, 28 November 2022
