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Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs) - service agreements

  • Last modified date:
    14 July 2008

About ISTCs

Independent Sector services are delivered in accordance with the founding NHS principle of treatment free at the point of delivery and available according to clinical need, rather than ability to pay. Independent Sector healthcare organisations provide greater scope to introduce new and innovative ways of delivering healthcare to NHS patients by adapting the traditional NHS model to suit local healthcare needs. Some Centres are refurbished sections of existing hospitals, or new buildings and some are mobile units that travel around the country. Patients treated at any NHS Treatment Centre that is managed by an independent healthcare company are still NHS patients. Care and treatment is free and patients can expect the same level of service they would expect from the NHS. GP or local support services can give patients information about the choices that are available.

ISTC Vision and Goals

The Independent Sector Treatment Centre programmes' core objectives were establised as to:

  • Support the NHS in reducing waiting times – “18 week waiting time target”
  • Support choice and contestability
  • Create an IS market that delivered Value for Money (VfM)
  • Support the shift from secondary to primary care
  • Promote innovative service models
  • Reduce costs of ‘spot purchasing’
  • Contribute to the long-term development of relationships between the IS and the NHS in the attainment of local NHS targets

IS Procurement Programme - Phase 2 Electives

Draft Services Agreement

To view a copy of a draft services agreement, please select the documents under 'Services Agreement' .
 
Please note:
 
The draft agreement is based on a generic draft Electives Services Agreement for Phase 2 of the Electives ISTC Programme. It does not represent a final version of either the generic draft agreement or any scheme-specific agreement. The terms of each individual scheme agreement will be the subject of scheme-specific negotiation and will be commercially privileged. It should not be considered a definitive statement of DH policy on any matter.
 
For further information about the IS Programme or DH policy generally, please see relevant sections of this website.

Publications

The Commercial Directorate have a number of documents available for your download:

Services Agreement

To view a draft version of the Services Agreement, please download the following files:

Additional links

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