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 Nottinghamshire transformed from 1
April under the Government's Transforming Community Services
programme.
From April responsibility for running the majority of community
health services currently delivered by Nottinghamshire County
Primary Care Trust have been transferred to a new consortium of
providers called County Health Partnerships comprising of
Nottinghamshire Healthcare, Central Nottinghamshire Clinical
Services (CNCS) and Principia Providers in Health whilst Nottingham
City Primary Care Trust will similarly transfer the majority of its
community health services to the Nottingham CityCare
Partnership.
CityCare has been incorporated as a community interest company
and the creation of this company signifies an exciting new venture
in the provision of local healthcare because the company is a
social enterprise owned and run by its employees.
Specialist healthcare law firm Browne Jacobson has been working
closely with Nottinghamshire County PCT and CityCare for a number
of months in setting up the new arrangements. This has included
advising both organisations on all the legal aspects of the
transactions, including advice on commercial, corporate governance,
real estate, employment and pension's matters.
Browne Jacobson is continuing to support Nottinghamshire County
PCT with the proposed transfer of certain other community services
to Sherwood Forest NHS Foundation Trust and has also been
supporting CityCare in the setting up and incorporation of the new
social enterprise.
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 community 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."
Jonathan Bemrose, Deputy Director of Finance at Nottingham
CityCare commented: "The team at Browne Jacobson is great to work
with. They are incredibly flexible responding to requests quickly,
outside of normal hours and at weekends. Their experience has been
invaluable in getting us to the "go-live" point and the
relationships we have developed with Oliver and the team will be so
important in the future".
For more information about Browne Jacobson, please visit their
website here: www.brownejacobson.com