Pictured above: Oliver Pritchard
Lawyers at Browne Jacobson have been advising local health
organisations as part of major reforms that will see community
health service provision across Derbyshire transformed under the
Government's Transforming Community Services programme.
From April responsibility for running the community health
services previously delivered by Derbyshire County Primary Care
Trust have transferred to Derbyshire Community Healthcare Services,
a newly created NHS Trust which is intending to become one of the
new wave of Community Foundation Trusts, whilst certain community
services previously managed by Derby City Primary Care Trust have
transferred to Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Specialist healthcare law firm Browne Jacobson has been working
closely with Derbyshire County PCT and Derby Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust for a number of months in setting up the new
arrangements. This has included advising both organisations on the
legal aspects of the transactions, including advice on commercial,
corporate governance, real estate, employment and pension's
matters.
In total Browne Jacobson has been advising on eleven such
projects across the East and West Midlands.
Transforming Community Services is an NHS programme designed to
raise the quality of care for patients by separating the
commissioning and provider roles currently undertaken by PCTs. The
premise of the initiative is that PCTs should be free to
concentrate on commissioning the best quality services for local
people, whilst the provider organisations can focus on providing
the services previously undertaken by PCTs. The aim behind the
separation of functions is to create greater choice for patients,
encourage competition in community services, develop, more cost
efficient services and support an improved emphasis on quality.
Oliver Pritchard, partner and head of the commercial health team
at Browne Jacobson, commented: "Our health team has been working
closely with our clients' project teams for several months in order
to support them in seeing these ground breaking projects through to
a successful conclusion within tight timescales. We are looking
forward to developing these relationships and supporting our
clients through the next reforms as the commissioning functions of
PCTs are transferred to the newly emerging GP Consortia."
Angela Potter, Deputy Director of Service Development at Derby
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, "Our new responsibility for
the provision of community health services represents a great
opportunity for us to shape local services and we are confident
that it will enable us to deliver services in an integrated way
resulting in reductions to hospital admissions and an improvement
in the healthcare experience for the people of Derbyshire."
For more information about Browne Jacobson, please visit their
website here: www.brownejacobson.com