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Court lifts automatic suspension on award of £128.4m care contract to Virgin

Two clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have successfully applied to the High Court to have lifted the automatic suspension of the award of a £128.4m contract to Virgin Care.

The award of the adult community care contract had been suspended after Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT), an unsuccessful bidder, launched legal proceedings in February this year.

A spokeswoman for NHS Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley CCG and NHS Swale CCG said: "On 10 May 2016, lawyers representing Dartford Gravesham and Swanley and Swale Clinical Commissioning Groups, submitted an application to the High Court seeking to lift the suspension of the contract award to Virgin Care.

"At the hearing that took place on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 May, the Court lifted the suspension which now enables the contract with Virgin Care to be signed.

"In the forthcoming weeks the CCG will work with the new provider to reinstate the mobilisation plan and ensure the safe handover of services from KCHFT."

Responding to the ruling, KCHFT noted that it had scored higher than Virgin Care for quality.

KCHFT Chief Executive Paul Bentley said: “It is only right that decisions to award multi-million pound NHS contracts should be subject to the highest scrutiny.

“As an NHS organisation, we take the responsibility of spending public money extremely seriously. We have one of the lowest running costs of any NHS community trust in the country and challenging this decision was not something we took lightly.

“We asked the north Kent CCGs for some more information about the procurement to confirm the contract was fairly awarded. This triggered an automatic suspension to the contract being signed. We are still waiting for information from the CCGs.

“While we are disappointed the automatic suspension has been lifted, we respect the court’s decision. The case to hear whether the procurement was carried out correctly is yet to be heard and we hope that it will be not be necessary when the information is provided.”