Guidelines on how NHS contracts should be awarded in future have been welcomed by anti-privatisation campaigners.
The new rules are not legally binding, but were agreed to unanimously by the heads of all the county’s hospitals and commissioners, as well as the councils which provide social care.
Campaigners from Keep Our NHS Public were at the meeting on May 9 and praised the decision afterwards.
Under the guidelines, before any major NHS contract is offered to the private sector, health bosses will first decide whether current in-house arrangements provide good care and value for money.
Crucially, NHS bosses will take into account several other factors other than just cost, including the social implications, the possible impact on deprivation and the environmental credentials.
The new rules come after a row between Labour-run Nottingham City Council and a powerful NHS body known as the Integrated Care System (ICS), a scheme designed to improve cooperation between social care and the NHS.
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The council suspended its membership of the ICS last year, in part over potential privatisation, but has now rejoined after assurances over the new guidelines, and the way the body is run.
Ian Curryer, chief executive of the council, told a meeting of the ICS board that considering the social value of NHS contracts was key.
“It’s for us to put some stakes in the ground as to what we stand for, and believe in, and I think this is really important," he said.
“I think we will look back at this moment and feel proud in years to come that we decided to have this sort of stance around the way that we work.
“As a vanguard system this is what we set out to do. We (the ICS) have been given freedom and flexibility by the Government because we've made good progress, and we’re leading the way.
“It’s going to be clunky though, until we refine the system, but I think it’s a really great start.”
Richard Buckwell, chairman of Keep Our NHS Public's Nottingham and Notts branch, said: “I think it’s very appropriate they’re discussing the implications of things like tendering to the private sector.
“It would save the NHS an awful lot of money to get shot of these tendering processes.
"I also think it’s good they've had the discussion in front of the public, and one thing that crop up was that this is not a problem Nottinghamshire can solve on its own, it has to be a national decision to stop this tendering in the health service.”
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