As you will have read in Owen’s Trust-wide email yesterday, the two CCGs in Kirklees have formally announced the award of the Care Closer to Home (CC2H) contract to Locala, in partnership with South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust.

Our Trust, in partnership with the three Federations representing GPs across Kirklees (PHH, Rowan and CURO), Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals Trust and Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, also submitted a bid for this Contract.

We neither agree with the decision nor the process undertaken by the CCGs in evaluating and making the decision on the contract. As such we have informed the CCGs that the Trust and our partners intend to lodge a formal complaint with Monitor asking for them to commence an investigation into the CCGs’ procurement process and its impact on the outcomes for patients. Our overriding reason for doing this is to ensure that patients and their families can be confident in the process and confident that they will receive the very best care as a result.

While this process is ongoing, we continue to work positively with our partners to ensure that the service for patients is unaffected, and will keep you informed of any developments.