HEALTH Secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned a bungled healthcare procurement process for children’s services that left NHS England, Surrey County Council and six clinical commissioning groups out of pocket by an estimated £2million.

Health provider Virgin Care Services started High Court proceedings against lead commissioner Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group and five other CCGs, NHS England and Surrey County Council in November 2016, after its bid to continue to provide children’s services in West Surrey from April 2017 failed.

The three-year, deal worth £82million, covering health visitors, school nurses and speech and occupational therapy for children was awarded to a consortium formed by in-house NHS providers and a social enterprise.

“Never before have we been so concerned with the whole process that we have needed to make a challenge of this nature,” Virgin Care’s legal representatives said when the company launched its legal challenge.

Last week, it was revealed the legal action had succeeded, but all parties remained tight-lipped on the amount paid to Virgin Care in compensation.

In a joint statement with Virgin Care, Guildford and Waverley CCG and the other agencies found to be at fault, said: “The parties are pleased to confirm an agreed resolution on the litigation concerning the Surrey children’s procurement has been reached to a satisfactory conclusion for all parties with detailed terms confidential to the parties.”

The Health Service Journal calculated the compensation paid was around £2million, based on a finance paper published by NHS Surrey Downs, one of the six CCGs involved, stating its liability for the case was £328,000.

The report was removed from its website after Health Service Journal made enquiries about the settlement.

A CCG spokesman said the reference had been removed because “the level of detail” should not have been included in the report.

Responding to the revelations, Mr Hunt, who is also the Tory MP for South West Surrey, said: “No one comes out of this episode well – neither the NHS for getting itself into a position where it loses a legal case, or Virgin for taking a case to court that means money is diverted from frontline services.”