Burton Hospitals Trust names EC Harris a SIEP partner

The Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has turned to a private sector partnership between EC Harris and Community Solutions Partnership Services, operating under Health Innovation Partners, for access to private capital as well as the streamlining of hospital processes.

The Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs three sites that provide hospital-based services: the Queen’s Hospital in Burton, the Samuel Johnson Community Hospital in Lichfield and the Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital in Tamworth. The sites together provide hospital services for a population of around 360,000 across the South Staffordshire, South Derbyshire and North West Leicestershire regions. The hospital provides 47,000 planned and emergency operations as well as 70,000 A&E (accident and emergency) attendances and around 13,000 day-case procedures.

Health Innovation Partners is a joint venture between EC Harris – which is a part of Arcadis – and Community Solutions Partnership Services – a subsidiary of Morgan Sindall Investments.

To assist it with efficiency savings as well as infrastructure projects, Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust appointed Health Innovation Partners as its preferred Strategic Infrastructure and Efficiency Partner (SIEP) for the coming ten years. The partnership will allow the Trust to draw on private sector expertise, as well as access to and arrangement of private sector capital for the financing of new projects and refurbishments, among others.

The partnership between the Health Innovation Partners and the Trust is under the terms of a Joint Venture agreement (JV) and is known as the Strategic Transformation Real Innovation and Delivery Excellence. (STRIDE). With the JV the Trust’s five year plan to improve and streamline day-to-day operations, as well as a partnership business plan set to cover the proposed phasing of service and infrastructure transformation of the Trust’s estates, will be realised.

“As the needs of our community evolve, it’s important that we are proactive in ensuring that our patients continue to benefit from clinical services, premises and facilities that allow the very best care and outcomes. […] By working in partnership in this way, we can undertake a positive programme of change that will support transformation and drive tangible efficiencies across our Trust,” explains Helen Ashley, Chief Executive of Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Conor Ellis, Healthcare Sector Leader for UK & Europe at EC Harris, adds: “We have worked with the Trust in considering solutions to its short and longer term priorities, identifying sustainable operational efficiencies that combine to enhance current processes and improve the patient and staff environment.”