Public Accounts Committee concerns

Circle suffered a torrid month after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that the company was not achieving the savings it expected to at Hinchingbrooke hospital and expressed concern at the loss of its chief executive Ali Parsa in December last year (see HMn December/January 2013). The Committee stated in its report, Department of Health: the Franchising of Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust and Peterborough and Stanford Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust, that: We are concerned that Circle’s bid was not properly risk assessed and that Circle was encouraged to submit overly optimistic and unachievable savings projections. While some financial and demand risk has been transferred to Circle, the NHS can never transfer the operational risk of running a hospital leaving the taxpayer exposed should the franchise fail.’