Hinchingbrooke Hospital

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Hinchingbrooke Hospital is a small district general hospital in Hinchingbrooke near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. It is led by Stephen Graves, chief executive, and chairman Rob Hughes.Opened in 1983, it serves the Huntingdonshire area, and has a range of specialities as well as an Accident and Emergency. It had 310 acute beds in 2007, now reduced to 223, including 24 specifically for day cases. It was formerly administered by Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, which had long-standing financial problems. It was obliged to borrow £27.3 million in Public Dividend Capital in 2006–07. In 2011 it became the first NHS hospital to be run by a private company, Circle Health. Although the hospital was managed privately, the buildings were still under public ownership by the NHS. This process was widely criticised as a significant step in the privatisation of the NHS in England.Mitie has been providing domestic cleaning services, waste collection, pest control and external window cleaning at the hospital since 2009.Circle Health franchiseThe franchise winner was announced to be Circle Health on 25 November 2010. The project has been conducted by the NHS East of England Strategic Projects Team. On 10 November 2011 it was confirmed that Hinchingbrooke Hospital would be administered by Circle Health from February 2012. Circle has a ten-year contract to manage the hospital, which has heavy financial debts. In 2012 losses doubled, and Circle obtained a £4 million advance on fees to ease cash flow problems at the hospital.