Big push for NHS LIFT's final wave

A massive push to deliver the government's NHS LIFT programme saw 17 contracts worth a combined £1.2bn advertised in the OJEC last month.

The 17 contracts are all from the third and final wave of the NHS LIFT programme, leaving just seven more contracts in the pipeline. The final seven are expected to be advertised next month.

Partnerships for Health chief executive Brian Johns told CJ: "We had a massive push in December which resulted in 17 OJEC notices being issued in the two weeks before Christmas. These were all from the third wave of 24 NHS LIFT contracts. We expect the remainder to be out by the end of February."

Meanwhile, a number of first wave NHS LIFT contracts are moving to preferred bidder stage. Barnsley is expected to select a winner by the end of this month with Manchester and Camden expected to reach preferred bidder stage by March.

Johns said the challenge is to bring the first wave of NHS LIFT deals to financial close as quickly as possible. He said: "What we are aiming for is to get through the preferred bidder stage to financial close within three months on each of these contracts."

The final deal in the second wave, Liverpool and Sefton, has also now been advertised and is worth £25m in the first year, rising to £60m over the five years.

Johns continued to dismiss industry concerns that there is insufficient skilled labour and capacity in the market to deliver the programme. He said: "It will be a challenge, but the PQQ responses we are getting indicate strong interest out there and an interest among many consortia in bidding for more than one or two."

He added that there is increasing interest from property developers and banking groups. "Many of these contracts come with terrific land banks, which is generating a lot of interest among property developers," he said.