A report by the Centre for Health and Public Interest (CHPI), an independent think-tank, has revealed that the NHS is struggling to manage and assess the effectiveness of its private sector outsourcing providers.

The report estimates that Local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) spend 16 per cent of their budgets in the private sector, requiring the oversight of almost 15,000 outsourced contracts. The CHPI findings reveal that 60 per cent of CCGs either did not record the number of site inspections undertaken or were simply unable to say. Worryingly, 12 per cent of CCGS disclosed that they had not carried out any inspections at all.

Colin Leys, the report’s co-author, said: “The picture that is emerging is of an NHS poorly equipped to ensure that healthcare services outsourced to for-profit providers will provide safe, high-quality care and good value for money.”

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