NHS Property Services

Last updated
NHS Property Services
Type State-owned limited company
Founded20 December 2011
Headquarters Stockport, Greater Manchester, England [1]
Owner Department of Health and Social Care
Website www.property.nhs.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

NHS Property Services Limited is a company owned by the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom that took over the ownership of around 3,600 National Health Service (NHS) facilities in April 2013.

Contents

Creation and purpose

Following the Health and Social Care Act 2012, strategic health authorities and primary care trusts in England were abolished and replaced with GP led commissioning consortia in April 2013. All properties which were not passed to the commissioning groups were transferred to NHS Property Services. The company now manages, maintains and develops the 3,500 NHS properties across England. [2]

“Hard” facilities management services, such as plumbing, electrical, mechanical, water and fire safety systems, and lighting were provided by outsourcing giant Mitie from 2016 until April 2020 when they were taken in-house. About 140 Mitie employees were transferred to NHS Property Services. Mitie continues to provide some other services — such as air conditioning, heating and gas. Other services are provided by Chubb Locks, Premier Technical Services Group Limited, and Dale. [3]

In 2020 a legal case was brought by the British Medical Association which argued the fees it demanded were unlawful. The dispute over rent and service charges incurred by GPs who occupy PropCo-owned property affects more than 800 GP practices. The full trial for the BMA’s case and NHS Property Services’s counterclaim is scheduled for March 2022. [4]

Commercial information

In 2021 it was reported that it had agreed tenancy details with 97% of the providers who used its buildings and that the organisations debts had been reduced from more than £700 million in 2019 to less than £500 million. Martin Steele, the chief executive, said a court judgment on the charging mechanisms would be “good news because at least everyone will be clear on the position”. [5]

In 2022 the company had transformed 69 vacant or under-utilised spaces in its properties for use by community groups or provision of non-clinical services as part of its national social prescribing programme. [6]

Related Research Articles

General practice is the name given in various nations, such as the United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to the services provided by general practitioners. In some nations, such as the US, similar services may be described as family medicine or primary care. The term Primary Care in the UK may also include services provided by community pharmacy, optometrist, dental surgery and community hearing care providers. The balance of care between primary care and secondary care - which usually refers to hospital based services - varies from place to place, and with time. In many countries there are initiatives to move services out of hospitals into the community, in the expectation that this will save money and be more convenient.

Health care in Ireland is delivered through public and private healthcare. The public health care system is governed by the Health Act 2004, which established a new body to be responsible for providing health and personal social services to everyone living in Ireland – the Health Service Executive. The new national health service came into being officially on 1 January 2005; however the new structures are currently in the process of being established as the reform programme continues. In addition to the public-sector, there is also a large private healthcare market.

Mitie Group PLC is a British strategic outsourcing and energy services company. It provides infrastructure consultancy, facilities management, property management, energy and healthcare services. It has a head office at The Shard in London and more than 200 smaller offices throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS primary care trust</span>

Primary care trusts (PCTs) were part of the National Health Service in England from 2001 to 2013. PCTs were largely administrative bodies, responsible for commissioning primary, community and secondary health services from providers. Until 31 May 2011, they also provided community health services directly. Collectively PCTs were responsible for spending around 80 per cent of the total NHS budget. Primary care trusts were abolished on 31 March 2013 as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, with their work taken over by clinical commissioning groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Wales</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales

NHS Wales is the publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales, and one of the four systems which make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Scotland</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in Scotland

NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, supported by seven special non-geographic health boards, and Public Health Scotland.

Health and Social Care (HSC) is the publicly funded healthcare system in Northern Ireland. Although having been created separately to the National Health Service (NHS), it is nonetheless considered a part of the overall national health service in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Executive through its Department of Health is responsible for its funding, while the Public Health Agency is the executive agency responsible for the provision of public health and social care services across Northern Ireland. It is free of charge to all citizens of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service (England)</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Healthcare in England is mainly provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents in England, that is free at the point of use. The body is one of four forming the UK National Health Service as health is a devolved matter, there are differences with the provisions for healthcare elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in England it is overseen by NHS England. Though the public system dominates healthcare provision in England, private health care and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available for those willing and able to pay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health and Social Care Act 2012</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided for the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date. It removed responsibility for the health of citizens from the Secretary of State for Health, which the post had carried since the inception of the NHS in 1948. It abolished primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) and transferred between £60 billion and £80 billion of "commissioning", or healthcare funds, from the abolished PCTs to several hundred clinical commissioning groups, partly run by the general practitioners (GPs) in England. A new executive agency of the Department of Health, Public Health England, was established under the act on 1 April 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinical commissioning group</span>

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integrated care systems as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Care</span>

Virgin Care was a private provider of community health and social services in parts of the UK, commissioned by the National Health Service and by local authorities in England. From 2010 the company was known as Virgin Care and was part of Virgin Group. In December 2021, it was acquired by Twenty20 Capital and rebranded as HCRG Care Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS England</span> Oversight body for the National Health Service in England

NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It directly commissions NHS general practitioners, dentists, optometrists and some specialist services. The Secretary of State publishes annually a document known as the NHS mandate which specifies the objectives which the Board should seek to achieve. National Health Service Regulations are published each year to give legal force to the mandate.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust which provides hospital and community health services in North Tyneside and hospital, community health and adult social care services in Northumberland.

Healthcare in Cumbria was the responsibility of Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group until July 2022. On 1 April 2017 32 GP practices left the CCG and merged with Lancashire North CCG to form Morecambe Bay CCG.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare in Kent</span>

Healthcare in Kent has, from 1 July 2022, been mainly the responsibility of the Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board. Certain specialised services are directly commissioned by NHS England, coordinated through the South East integrated regional team. Some NHS England structures are aligned on a Kent and Medway basis, others on a South East basis and there is liaison with London to provide many tertiary healthcare services.

Healthcare in the West Midlands was, until July 2022, the responsibility of five clinical commissioning groups: Birmingham and Solihull, Sandwell and West Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton, and Walsall.

Healthcare in Surrey, England was the responsibility of five Clinical Commissioning Groups: East Surrey, North West Surrey, Surrey Downs, Guildford and Waverley, and Surrey Heath from 2013 to 2020 when East Surrey, North West Surrey, Surrey Downs, Guildford and Waverley merged to form Surrey Heartlands CCG. The new organisation started with a £62 million deficit.

Healthcare in Essex is now the responsibility of six clinical commissioning groups: Basildon and Brentwood, Mid Essex, North East Essex, Southend, Thurrock and West Essex.

Healthcare Environment Services (HES) Limited was a company based in Shotts. It claimed to be the largest independent medical waste management solutions company in the UK. On 30 April, HES was placed into liquidation

References

  1. "NHS PROPERTY SERVICES LIMITED". Companies House . Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  2. Update on launch of NHS Property Services Ltd Department of Health
  3. "NHS property company takes multimillion pound contract in-house". Health Service Journal. 14 April 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  4. "PropCo sues GPs in landmark legal battle". Health Service Journal. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. "Controversial NHS property quango may need 'additional funding' to balance books". Health Service Journal. 5 May 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  6. "New research provides key insight for narrowing health inequalities". National health Executive. 28 October 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2022.