The controversial out-sourcing company Capita has been stripped of its contract to manage cervical screening in England after thousands of women failed to receive letters about the programme.
The action is the first significant punitive step against the company which has been accused of mishandling major contracts to manage services for general practices.
In November it was revealed that more than 43,000 women had not received appointment or reminder letters about the programme. Another 4,500 women did not receive the results of screening tests.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens revealed the latest action as he appears before the House of Commons public accounts committee yesterday.
He told MPs: “That has been in recent years administered as part of the Capita primary care services contract. As you know, we have not been satisfied with the way in which that has been performing.
“Indeed, as you also know, there was an issue last year that came to light when we were notified late by Capita about delays in letters going out. Therefore, today I’m announcing that we are bringing the cervical screening service back in-house to the NHS from Capita beginning June and then a phased transition through the rest of the year.”
The British Medical Association welcomed the news.
Dr Krishna Kasaraneni, from its GP committee, said: “It is only right that NHS England has followed through and removed this service from Capita, and now any transition process must be robust and not be done as a cost-cutting exercise at the expense of patient safety.”
He added: “We know there are still fundamental on-going issues with Capita’s delivery of other backroom functions – including the transfer of patient records, pensions administration and payments to practices – and we demand that NHS England ultimately takes responsibility for all of these shortcomings and brings these back in-house as well.”
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