Two leading healthcare companies have won the tender to provide Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group with orthotic services.
In what is believed to be a first, Opcare and Trulife have been commissioned to provide a range of products including footwear, insoles, callipers, splints, knee braces and fabric and spinal supports.
The service will benefit patients who are registered with a GP in Wirral.
It is normally the case that CCG tenders are awarded for podiatry rather than orthotics.
Oxfordshire-based Opcare is a major provider of orthotic services to the NHS with the company’s orthotists prescribing orthopaedic devices to over 60,000 NHS patients. The company is also the largest provider of prosthetic services to the NHS including assessment, design, manufacture and fitting of artificial limbs.
Trulife is an international organisation – with UK offices in Sheffield and Birmingham – engaged in the development and manufacture of healthcare products including orthopaedics and prosthetics.