South Gloucestershire Community Health Services to transfer from North Bristol NHS Trust

South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has announced the awarding of its community health services contract to Sirona Care and Health, a not for profit organisation.

The contract, which will start on 1 April 2014, will provide home and community based care for South Gloucestershire’s adult population including community, specialist and out of hours nursing, discharge liaison teams and emergency care practitioners. Community physiotherapists, clinical assessment and treatment teams, podiatry and the clinical services for Henderson Ward at Thornbury Hospital are also included in the new contract.

Sirona is publically funded by the NHS and, in some areas, local authorities. As a community interest company which does not have shareholders, any surplus is reinvested into services for local people.

It currently employs 1,700 staff, most of whom transferred to them from either the NHS or the Council in Bath & North East Somerset.  A further 450 NHS staff will transfer to Sirona as part of the five year contract that has been awarded.

Dr Jonathan Hayes, clinical chair of South Gloucestershire CCG, said: “We are delighted to award Sirona the new community health services contract. We are looking forward to working with them to provide high quality services for patients to support them when they leave hospital, to help them manage their condition at home and to provide more clinics closer to where people live.

“The service provided by SGCHS is of high standard. However, the quality of the bidders was incredibly high and we are convinced that Sirona Care and Health will be able to build upon the existing services and improve them.

“We want to reassure patients that there will be a continuous service as we move over to the new provider. Staff from the current community health and service team will be moving across to work for Sirona Care and Health and it will, of course, continue to be a free NHS funded service.”

Sirona Health and Care already provide services for children with life limiting illnesses and were recently awarded the contract to run South Gloucestershire’s learning disability health services..

Sasha Karakusevic, Chief Operating Officer, said: "At North Bristol NHS Trust we will work closely with Sirona Care and Health to ensure that there is a smooth transfer of care and staff in April 2014, so that our patients will continue to receive the same high level community and home based care."