Redbridge’s NHS hospital trust has narrowly missed out on a £55m contract to take over a treatment centre, which will instead be run privately.

In 2015, Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS University Hospital Trust (BHRUT) was named as the preferred bidder to provide elective healthcare services at the North East London Treatment Centre on the site of King George Hospital in Goodmayes, Redbridge.

But Care UK, which was then running the centre, claimed the bidding process had been unfair, and appealed the decision to the NHS regulator, Monitor, which has since become NHS Improvement.

A spokesman for Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) confirmed Care UK has now been awarded the contract.

He added: “This comes after a robust procurement exercise for the service which was carried out in the best interests of patients, in accordance with the NHS rules on procurement, choice and competition.

“The CCGs are satisfied that the procurement of the treatment centre meets the relevant legislation and is consistent with the published tender documents.”

Matthew Hopkins, BHRUT chief executive, admitted the trust was “extremely disappointed” by the decision.

He said: “We believe we offer the best option for our local community and put forward a compelling bid.

“This demonstrated how we would have developed a centre of excellence in the heart of Redbridge and how we would have been uniquely placed to make the best use of facilities due to the co-location with King George Hospital, offering great benefits for our patients.

“We have made huge improvements across our trust over recent years, including exiting special measures following a very positive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection, and hitting the national standard for planned operations waiting times.

“We will of course continue to ensure that our patients receive the very best quality, swift and safe planned care and will keep exploring how we can increase our capacity so that patients can continue to choose to have their treatment at our hospitals.”

The North East London Treatment Centre

was graded as “requiring improvement” by CQC inspectors in April.

Care UK did not respond to the Recorder’s request for comment.