A NEW health body will soon be responsible for community services in Ryedale, in a £80 million deal.

Humber NHS Foundation Trust (FT) will be running community care, prevention and support services for adults in Scarborough and Ryedale, after it won a competitive tender run by the area’s health commissioners (CCG).

The CCG’s chief officer, Simon Cox, said: “Humber NHS Foundation Trust put forward an excellent model which aligns strongly with the CCG’s vision for community services.

“They propose that person-centred care focusing on prevention, health promotion and wellbeing, led by primary care with an integrated primary/community/social care team is the default for patients.”

The Humber trust will take on a £80.6 million contract for up to seven years. It includes community nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, plus specialist nursing and other therapies in the first year, and continuing healthcare assessments, frailty, and elderly medicine outpatients from the second year.

It takes over from York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after bosses there decided not to bid for the work again, citing worries over money and possible financial penalties for not meeting ambitious targets.

The CCG bosses have pledged to work closely with both the Humber and York trusts to make sure services are safely handed over and staff have can transfer to the new provider.

Humber chief executive Michele Moran, said: “We are thrilled to be chosen as the preferred provider and are excited about the opportunity to deliver outstanding integrated person-centred services for the Scarborough and Ryedale area that the population and our commissioner expect and deserve.

She said: “We are delighted at the prospect of developing closer working relationships with all our partners, especially those in primary and social care and look forward to enhancing the system-wide working that has already started, that will deliver thriving and sustainable communities.”

The Humber trust already provides community and other healths services to 650,000 people in Whitby, Hull and East Riding and the wider Yorkshire region.

It beat a joint bid from County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and North Yorkshire County Council and East Coast Health Options (ECHO) Community Interest Company.