The economic and political environment is pushing through unprecedented changes within the NHS, none more so than in the provision of back-office functions.

NHS organisations across the country are evaluating how they provide their corporate services, including estates, facilities, procurement, HR and payroll – all of which make up a significant £2.8bn chunk of NHS annual expenditure.

The Department of Health's efficiency improvement programme Qipp suggests a saving in excess of £600m can be achieved by delivering a more creative model for back-office services. However, savings are not the only driver for change. Ensuring that operational infrastructure is of optimum quality is essential in delivering the service reconfiguration that is needed.

Some trusts are becoming acutely aware of this issue and are confronting it. NHS trusts have become encumbered by back-office responsibilities. Many would relish, and are relishing, being freed of these responsibilities and focusing on what they do best – providing world-class healthcare.

Does this mean going private?

The current government agenda in this area is clear – reduce the size of the NHS by contracting non-core services out. "So who will provide these vital infrastructure services then?" I hear you cry. The private sector? Not necessarily.

There's no question that if managed correctly, the NHS can benefit greatly from procuring services through commercial providers. They offer mature systems, strong investment profiles, good service delivery capability and economies of scale that make for a very compelling business case.

There is also a growing appetite within a number of NHS organisations to share services. Yet there remains a generally recognised consensus that many of the current NHS shared services providers, while understanding their customer's cultural demands, often do not have to commercial rigour to reach the service levels regularly seen and expected in the private sector.

The best of both worlds

Forward-thinking NHS organisations have recognised that there is an excellent opportunity to bridge the gap. An NHS shared service, with the service levels, commercial rigour, innovation and investment profile that can compete with commercial-sector competitors, but still retaining all the healthcare domain knowledge, is essential to provide services in this complex marketplace.

We're working with a number of NHS providers and shared services organisations that are aggressively developing their offering to compete for this new market. They are looking to provide a wide range of services within their local healthcare economy, their local authority and way beyond.

A shared services organisation such as this has the ability and expertise to not only compete with private sector organisations but also support them. They are finding that it is no longer the case that it is just the public sector that needs the private sector's commercial expertise, but also that the opposite can be true.

A notable example of that is Guy's and St Thomas' NHS foundation trust, which has built a range of services under its Essentia brand to offer to other NHS and public sector organisations. It is a good example of a public sector provider creating a service based on private-sector best practice.

It's clear to me that the provision of corporate service will change beyond recognition over the next five years. The more NHS corporate service providers that can compete with their commercial sector counterparts, the higher standards will rise and the more healthcare providers can concentrate on providing healthcare.

Rhys Hefford is chief executive of Channel 3 consulting.

This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Guardian healthcare network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers.