NHS TRUST
EXPERT WITNESS
CASE STUDY

Client

Confidential Healthcare NHS Trust, SE England

Service

Expert Witness

“Victoria has done an absolutely excellent job in supporting the Trust during this highly complex dispute. Her technical role in interpreting engineering evidence so that it could be presented contractually and legally was fundamental to the substantial outcome that the Trust achieved, and I have no hesitation in recommending her as a key advisor for similar projects in the future.”
Jonathan Pearce
Director of Estates & Facilities

PROJECT BACKGROUND

After a long running dispute regarding performance on an early PFI contract, we were commissioned, in partnership with Sweett Group, by an NHS Trust to provide advice relating to hard facilities management payment deductions.

OUR ROLE

An initial assessment of the monthly performance was required, together with identified deficiencies from specialist reports. Our role was then to:
  • Identify deficiencies against the contractual SLAs
  • Provide a pragmatic interpretation of the SLAs against the payment mechanism
  • Produce a model for calculating payment deductions
  • Calculate deductions for disputed months
  • Provide commercial support to the Trust during dispute negotiations
  • Provide a training handover for Trust staff on completion of the dispute

RESULTS FOR CLIENT

The Trust was successful and achieved a substantial settlement together with pragmatic improvements in the performance management system. These improvements give increased transparency in reporting and will provide real time updates to the Trust.

This clarity of information will allow the Trust team to monitor the contract more effectively in future; setting the foundations for on-going value and performance enhancements in partnership with the contractor.

Standards of hard FM maintenance have been improved and deductions are now running at a level that would be expected for a PFI contract.

Formal dispute resolution processes were followed and Victoria provided commercial support at all stages of the negotiations and arbitration; supporting all position considerations with scenario modelling and options papers.

Contact DGW Consulting to discuss how our payment mechanism and performance management can assist you in managing or settling disputes.
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