A team of lawyers from the Birmingham office of national law firm Mills & Reeve has advised Virgin Care on its multi-million pound contract with NHS Surrey to deliver community services across the county from 2012 to 2017.
The £500million five-year contract covers community health services in South West and North West Surrey, as well as some provided county-wide such as prison healthcare and sexual health services.
The services will continue to be known as Surrey Community Health providing NHS healthcare for Surrey patients. This is essentially a transfer of management and follows national guidance that allows NHS Surrey to focus on developing, buying and managing the performance of services, leaving Virgin Care to concentrate on delivering services.
Julian Smith, a partner in the corporate team at Mills & Reeve in Birmingham, led the advisory team, which included Junaid Haroon (corporate), Martin Brewer (HR), Anna Youngs (HR), Sarah Riding (commercial) and Nicola Savery (commercial and corporate) from Birmingham, as well as five lawyers from the firm’s Cambridge office.
Bart Johnson, CEO, Virgin Care, said: “We were delighted to have worked with Mills & Reeve, which acted as an extension of our small in-house legal team. Throughout this project Julian and his team have demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the healthcare sector and shared our values: the Mills & Reeve team was outcome-driven, focussed on outstanding performance, caring and fun.”
Julian Smith said: “We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Virgin Care on this exciting project. The deal is excellent for the Trust, for Virgin Care and most importantly for patients. It also highlights Mills & Reeve’s capacity to deliver big, complex, high-profile transactions in the health sector. Our expertise in the healthcare sector, our experience of acting for large health sector businesses and the strength across the board of our full service team helps to distinguish us from our peers. I am grateful for the dedication and hard work of the whole team in bringing this great deal to a successful conclusion.”