Carillion awarded five-year £80m NHS contract

Carillion isset to be awarded its first National Health Service private finance contract in the family doctors and local clinics sector.

The construction and support services group was yesterday named preferred bidder for a primary health care deal in Birmingham and Solihull estimated to be worth £80m in the first five years, with the potential of a 20-year partnership. Carillion will build and finance doctors' surgeries and other primary care facilities across Birmingham and Solihull, as well as providing the facilities management for the sites.

A total of 12 "one-stop" centres will be created by Carillion, bringing social services closer to healthcare provision under a national government programme called Lift (Local Improvement Finance Trust). The programme aims to integrate local health and allied community services. Over the next two years, a further 30 facilities will either be radically improved or replaced.

John McDonough, the chief executive of Carillion, said: "Health is one of our key growth sectors and the Lift programme is one of a number of important new developments that underpin the Government's commitment to improving services through working with the private sector to deliver total healthcare solutions. Being appointed preferred bidder on our first Lift contract is therefore a further significant step in the development of Carillion Health."

The company recently launched the Carillion Health business, led by managing director Adrian Bull, that draws together the group's skills and expertise in this sector. Work on the first three Midlands schemes will start in October: the city corridor scheme in West Birmingham; the Chelmsley Wood development in North Solihull and the Woodgate Valley project in South-west Birmingham.

Carillion already has a portfolio of fully operational Public Private Partnership hospitals and contracts for facilities management in other NHS hospitals and is also currently the preferred bidder on its sixth PPP hospital, in Oxford, and on the new William Osler Health Centrein Ontario, Canada, its first overseas PPP hospital.

Carillion has also been selected to bid for Diagnostic and Treatment Centres (DTC) initiative in the UK. The DTC programme is estimated to involve some £2bn of construction work in its first few years.