North Cumbria Integrated Care was granted a no fault termination of the Cumberland Infirmary PFI contract by the Government, with notice served on business partner Mitie in December.
Like many hospitals, police stations and council buildings across the country, the Cumberland Infirmary was built on the PFI contract, in 2000.
The partnerships between public bodies and private businesses were the Blair-Brown Government’s preferred method of building and maintaining infrastructure.
Carlisle’s new-look Emergency Department, which contains the new Urgent Treatment Centre. (Image: NCIC)
James Drury, Executive Director of Finance, Estates and Digital, confirmed to the board at their meeting on Wednesday March 25, that a new contract had been signed with Mitie to take affect from March 31, when NCIC assumes responsibility for the hospital estate.
It means that Mitie will continue to provide the facilities management services it was delivering at the Cumberland Infirmary under the PFI contract.
NCIC’s Interim Chair, Teresa Griffiths CBE ARRC called it “A huge success.”
Mr Drury explained that this involved finding a procurement framework to agree a specification to move from a PFI contract to a CCS (Crown Commercial Service) contract in just two and a half months.
Ms Griffiths called the move: “mission impossible.”
CCS contracts and other national procurement frameworks are favoured by NHS England as they allow trusts to place orders in a way that is compliant with legislation.
Interim Chief Executive Officer Trudie Davies said: “It’s absolutely amazing and it secures a standard of care for our patients and staff that we can rely upon as we exit the PFI, which is significant so thank you James and Steve.”
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Ms Griffiths said: “That is hugely assuring and reassuring, it really did feel like mission impossible, I don’t know how you’ve managed to do that and everything else. Again, huge thank you.”
The new contract had to be negotiated at short notice during a particularly busy time for finance teams in NHS trusts, as the 2025/26 financial year was coming to an end on March 31.
Between January and March, NCIC also determined a go-live date for an Electronic Patient Record and awarded contracts for a Document Transmission Service and machine maintenance.
The trust also purchased a state of the art £3million robot for use in operating theatres.