NHS Wiltshire has proposed that the ownership of Savernake Hospital should be passed to Great Western Hospitals Foundation Trust. At present it is owned by NHS Wiltshire, the county’s Primary Care Trust (PCT) which will cease to exist in March next year, and they pay Savernake’s annual PFI (Private Finance Initiative) bill.
Since GWH became the provider of the county’s community health services in June 2011, it has become the prime user of Savernake’s facilities. In the words of the Department of Health’s guidelines, it has become part of GWH’s “service critical clinical infrastructure” – and that is the basis for the PCT’s proposal.
However GWH expects the final decision on ownership to be made later in the year by the Secretary of State. Maria Moore, GWH’s Director of Finance and Performance told Marlborough News Online: “Any decision on whether our Trust seeks to take on ownership of the actual buildings requires extensive due diligence and will be a decision taken by the Board with final approval resting with the Secretary of State.”
She added: “Regardless of who owns Savernake, the majority of the services provided within those buildings will continue to be managed by the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.”
GWH’s contract for Wiltshire’s community health services runs for five years. So the ownership of Savernake Hospital would be fixed at least until June 2016. If GWH were then to lose the community health contract for Wiltshire, Savernake would presumably pass to the new contractor whether that was a public or private provider.
The PCT’s proposal to transfer community hospitals to GWH covers those in Devizes, Chippenham, Melksham, Warminster and Trowbridge, as well as health centres in Amesbury, Calne, Salisbury (Central) and Corsham.
While this move was forecast as long ago as summer 2011, there were doubts whether Savernake’s PFI contract would be handed over to another hospital which itself has to find large annual PFI payments. It was then thought that NHS Property Services Limited (known as PropCo) which has been set-up to take over most of PCTs’ buildings and land across England, might become Savernake’s new owner.
PropCo is one hundred per cent owned by the Secretary of State for Health. Maria Moore does not rule out the possibility that Wiltshire’s community hospitals could still be transferred to PropCo.
This would lead to some uncertainty for Savernake Hospital as after about three years PropCo will have to be running on a “full commercial model” so the government then has the option to sell it off. It is believed that properties with long-term PFIs might be considered toxic in any future sell-off.
Joan Davies, Chairman of Savernake Parish Council who has been involved with the hospital for about forty years, says she is very pleased that NHS Wiltshire has proposed in principal that GWH should own Savernake Hospital: “Since the GWH has been managing medical and therapy staff at Savernake Hospital there have been many improvements with all the beds in Ailesbury Ward now being used and more out-patient clinics taking place. If the GWH can clear the legal and business side of the proposed transfer I believe we will be very fortunate in this area to retain our local acute hospital (GWH), our community hospital (Savernake) and our neighbourhood team (nurses and therapists who visit patients in their own homes) all under the same management.”
