Research conducted by Bain, the management consultants, on behalf of the Financial Times has found that the “exuberant” rise in NHS outsourcing seen since 2012 has come to an “abrupt halt” this year.

While £5.8 billion worth of NHS work was tendered out to private companies in July, the total value remained consistent with the previous year – a stark contrast to the annual 14-15 per cent growth in the total value of contracts outsourced between 2012 and 2014, following the introduction of the Health and Social Care Act.

The FT suggests this is due to a high number of NHS outsourcing failures during that period. Examples include Circle Healthcare’s takeover of Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Serco’s contract to run community care services in Suffolk. Despite the private companies involved typically shouldering the blame for these cases, it is likely that the failures have been due to faults on both sides: experts have suggested that many NHS tenders are too loosely worded, and that buy-side contract negotiators have rushed too quickly into overly large contracts.

Despite this stagnation, there’s little doubt that service providers will have plenty of further opportunities to compete for NHS work in the future, as the health service struggles to deal with mounting cuts and deficits.

Just a few months ago, Capita signed a contract worth up to £1 billion to provide the NHS with back office services – the success of this contract will be a key indicator as to whether the NHS and the private sector are capable of turning around this poor outsourcing record.

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Related: iGov survey: Majority of NHS heads believe outsourcing is essential to future of health service