02 December 2005
Two primary care trusts are hoping to be reimbursed by the Department of Health after paying a private company more than £200,000 for operations and consultations that did not take place.
As part of a national NHS contract with South African firm Netcare UK, patients in south Oxfordshire have been offered cataract surgery in mobile units since April.
The contract was controversial and non-executive directors resigned from the South East and South West Oxfordshire PCTs' boards in 2004 in protest at being 'forced' by the department to agree the deal.
The PCTs have reviewed the patient uptake over the first six months and found only 50 of the 323 allotted pre-operative clinic appointments and 43 of the 249 surgery slots had been used.
Under Patient Choice, patients had opted for the local NHS provider, the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, which has a good reputation and short waiting lists. Yet, under the terms of the contract, Netcare has been able to invoice the PCTs for all the scheduled activity – whether it was used or not. Assuming the tariff stayed the same, on a case-by-case basis the PCTs would have paid just over £39,000 for the work. Instead, they have paid more than £255,000.
A spokeswoman for the PCTs said they were looking at ways to minimise losses to the NHS, including brokering the activity to neighbouring areas.
'Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority has not agreed to take any of the financial risk – legally that lies with us – but we understand it is in discussion with the department to have this underwritten,' she added.
Confidence in the Netcare centre was growing, she said. Early figures for December, when the pre-operative unit next visits the town of Wantage, show a growth in referred patients from an average of 13 on the past four visits to 28.
A Netcare spokesman defended the firm's record. 'Of the eight participating SHAs, Thames Valley is the only one where the theatre uptake is below 80%. Many other SHAs now have an uptake rate of more than 98%.
'Thames Valley represents just 6.5% of the scheduled activity to date,' he said.
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