The private sector is to be invited for the first time to take over and run a big NHS hospital – including its accident and emergency and maternity services – under plans backed by the Department of Health and the Treasury on Tuesday.
The East of England strategic health authority is to call for bids, from NHS organisations as well as the private sector, to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital, including its accident and emergency and maternity services. The hospital is in the Huntingdonshire parliamentary constituency once represented by John Major, the former prime minister.
