THREE groups are to bid to take over community health services in Ryedale.

Scarborough and Ryedale and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) made the announcement after the York Hospital Trust confirmed it was not bidding to renew its contract for adult community health services, including district nursing and some physiotherapy.

As many as 240 staff will be affected.

The £80.6 million contract for a partially integrated multi-community provider (MCP) will run from April 3, 2018, for a maximum of seven years.

Following a number of expressions of interest and an evaluation process, the three organisations invited to remain in the tendering process are, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, Humber NHS Foundation Trust and North Yorkshire County Council and East Coast Health Options (ECHO) Community Interest Company, bidding as a consortium.

Dr Phil Garnett, chairman of the NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG, said: “We want to see all of our community services organised around the communities where people live and the GP practices people use, and we want to work with partners who share our vision and can overcome barriers to joint working.

“We envisage enhanced prevention and self-care at the core of our model and, if care becomes necessary, timely, integrated coordinated care and support.

“We want to enable providers to develop creative and innovative ways of working across organisational boundaries and we are excited to be embarking on this new and different approach to securing the bespoke services we want to see for our population.”

Simon Cox, chief officer for NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG, said: “We are pleased these organisations are interested in the opportunity to work with the CCG and its partners, over the forthcoming weeks, to develop ambitious and deliverable service propositions.

“We note the decision taken by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – our current service provider – not to take part in the tendering exercise.

“We recognise the Trust’s decision may create additional uncertainty, both for patients and for its hardworking and committed staff who currently deliver services in our community.

“As a result, we wish to reassure patients, carers, staff and other stakeholders that in evaluating the procurement exercise, we will take into account a number of factors, including continued well led service delivery, improvements for patients and carers, the need to protect the employment rights of any existing staff who might transfer to a new provider and the requirement to have a well-planned, safe service transition.

“We also acknowledge that York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has stated that whoever wins the contract for our Community Services can be assured of their ongoing commitment to work in partnership to continue the development of out of hospital care.”

The successful bidder will be announced in the autumn.