A US healthcare corporation with close personal links to Downing Street yesterday won the contract for revolutionising NHS cancer care in England.
In May the United Health group, a $28bn (£15.8bn) company based in Minneapolis, recruited Simon Stevens, the prime minister's senior health policy adviser, as a vice-president with a brief to expand its European business.
Yesterday one of the group's subsidiaries, Ovations Healthcare, landed a £6m deal to test a new approach to cancer management in nine areas of England. Melanie Johnson, the public health minister, said: "It will help us plan for the best cancer care throughout the country."
Mr Stevens left Downing Street shortly after agreeing to join the firm, but cannot start work until he has completed a period of purdah demanded by Whitehall to maintain civil service propriety.
Even before his arrival, the US company is having considerable success in winning NHS business.
In June Tony Blair's latest five-year plan for the NHS said every primary care trust in England should adopt the United Health approach to caring for vulnerable older people.
Under yesterday's deal the group will try out methods of cancer care that it developed in the US to keep NHS patients out of hospital by improving diagnosis and support.
The scheme includes:
·Tracking patients throughout their illness
·Detecting problems early
·Improving coordination be-tween different health services
·Ensuring timely and safe treatment to allow patients swift discharge from hospital
For the past four years Mr Stevens has been regarded as the most influential voice in the development of health policy.
He crafted the NHS plan in 2000 while working as an adviser to Alan Milburn, then health secretary, and was the brains behind most subsequent developments, including solving the NHS waiting list problem by contracting out work to foreign firms.
He has said he will not use his former position of influence at the heart of government to help his new employers.
Ms Johnson said: "We will find out what really helps [cancer] patients during their illness and ensure resources are spent in a way which benefits the patient as much as possible."
The nine pilot areas will be Haringey primary care trust, Halton PCT, Poole PCT, Derby-shire Dales and South Derby-shire PCT, Harrow PCT, Selby and York PCT and districts of Herefordshire, East Berkshire and Portsmouth/South East Hampshire.
