University Hospital Dorset (UHD) NHS Foundation Trust based in Bournemouth and Poole has launched a tender seeking a private healthcare company as a long-term joint venture partner in order to substantially increase its private work and help pay for its ongoing £550 million refurbishment and upgrade process.
In the tender documents, the Trust notes that income is needed as:
“The capital charges [from the £550m investment] are significant, and part of the payback is to expand profitable private work.”
Documents in the Trust’s tender advertised on Find-a-tender note that a joint venture partner will need to have a successful track record of “partnerships within NHS Trust settings” and “working with insurers and self payors.” Any partner must operate using UHD facilities and produce income for UHD “through a transparent profit-share model.”
All services would be within scope of the partnership except for cardiology, which is covered by a separate joint venture contract with the Dorset Heart Clinic.
At present, UHD carries out a limited amount of private work, including in a dedicated unit at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, but this brought in income of just £3.1 million in 2024/25. The documents note that UHD could have developed more private patient work in-house but the “Board is open to a joint venture as a way of best achieving the opportunity.”
Full story in The Lowdown, 29 September 2025
