Serco awarded £140m Plymouth Hospitals services contract

10 June 2009

Serco's contract is for seven years with an option to extend for a further three, and is valued at around £140m over the full 10 years

Serco Group plc has announced that it has been awarded a contract in the UK by the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust to provide services, including a helpdesk, ward housekeeping, portering, cleaning, and patient and staff catering, at the Derriford Hospital and the Royal Eye Infirmary.

Under the contract, which will commence in September 2009, Serco will develop technology enabled solutions in partnership with the Trust to raise the standards of cleanliness and catering, and to tailor them to meet the needs of staff and patients in each particular ward, with the aim of achieving scores of Excellence for both cleanliness and food at the next inspection under the Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) programme for England which takes place in 2010.

The contract further extends our presence in the health sector, where we already deliver a range of services to other hospitals around the UK. These include pathology services in partnership with Guy's and St Thomas' NHSFoundation Trust, and support services for the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital, the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Wishaw General Hospital and whichwe are also phasing in to the new Forth Valley Acute Hospital in Stirlingshire.

Christopher Hyman, Chief Executive of Serco Group, said: 'We are delighted tohave this opportunity to extend our work in the UK health sector through this contract with the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, and to work with clinicians,nursing and other professions and, most importantly, patients, to improve services at its hospitals in Plymouth.'