A top health official has said she is confident the hospital’s challenge to their contract decision will fail.

Last month Greater Huddersfield and North Kirklees clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) jointly awarded a £225m community care contract to not-for-profit health firm Locala.

But rival bidders, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, complained and said it was asking regulator Monitor to investigate.

Missing out on the so called ‘Care Closer to Home’ deal means about £5m of the hospital’s services will be transferred to Locala.

At the trust’s July board meeting, chief executive, Owen Williams, confirmed they had lodged their complaint.

He said: “We’re only doing this because we want the best care for local people.

“It’s for no other reason than that.

“We will wait and see where that process takes us.”

Speaking at Kirklees Council’s scrutiny panel into health decision, Carol McKenna, chief executive of Greater Huddersfield CCG, said they welcomed any questions from Monitor.

“We remain really confident in our processes and the decision making that we went through,” she told councillors.

“We had to work really hard on managing conflicts of interest,” she said.

Chris Dowse, chief executive of North Kirklees CCG, added: “Monitor were involved from the start. We have been really careful to follow their directions. That’s what gives us confidence what we’ve done is right.”

The CCG officials said they were proceeding with plans to launch the new service, which will deliver more care outside of a hospital setting, on October 1.

Mrs McKenna added: “This is different to a legal challenge which could have stopped it.”

Meanwhile a second dispute between Greater Huddersfield CCG and the hospital trust has moved into arbitration.

The two parties and Calderdale CCG have failed to agree payment terms for the main clinical contract with the hospital.

Mrs McKenna said a mediation meeting with hospital executives had taken place on July 24.

She said:”Both parties are very respectful of each other’s positions. We didn’t reach a full agreement but some progress was made.

“Sometimes organisations have different positions but that doesn’t mean it’s daggers drawn.”

Mrs McKenna said she was hopeful the dispute would be resolved in the next few weeks.