Four organisations, including the private Virgin Care, are believed to be in a bidding war to take over Sittingbourne and Sheppey hospitals.

The secret shake-up has been ordered by NHS Swale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which plans and pays for the bulk of the area’s health services.

The CCG put the multimillion-pound service out to tender earlier this year.

A series of interviews and presentations have already taken place. A third and final round for the remaining bidders takes place later this month.

Staff at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Sheppey Community Hospital, Plover Road, Minster, and the Memorial Hospital in Bell Road, Sittingbourne, along with the area’s community nursing team, are expected to learn their fate around Christmas.

It is understood their trust is among four bidders and is hoping to retain the contract.

A CCG spokesman confirmed: “We expect to award the contract on Tuesday, December 22 with signatures planned for early January. Once completed, the result will be communicated to all stakeholders.” NHS contracts usually start on April 1.

The spokesman added: “The tender process is an ongoing dialogue with a number of interested parties. At this stage it is not appropriate to provide further details about the number or names of the organisations involved, or the total value of the contract.”

The search has so far taken a year. The spokesman added: “The project team leading the procurement of adult community services was inaugurated in November 2014 for the purpose of ensuring high quality and best-value services are provided to the population.

“To ensure this, we are required to test the market.” The next public meeting of the CCG’s board of governors is at 1pm on Friday, November 27, at the Hope Street Church in Sheerness.

Swale CCG’s sister CCG covering Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley is also offering a new contract to run the Gravesham Hospital in Gravesend and the Livingstone Hospital in Dartford. Both are also being run by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.

There had been no public announcement about the bidding process until now although a letter released in background papers for the CCG’s annual meeting at Sittingbourne’s Coniston Hotel in September confirmed the search was taking place.

The letter, from Pennie Ford, director of assurance and delivery at NHS England, was to GP Dr Fiona Armstrong, who chairs the CCG.

It was written in August following a meeting with the organisation on June 26 and said: "The CCG has made good headway in redesigning community services and hopes to award a contract later this year.”

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is one of Britain’s biggest providers of community healthcare.

It was created in 2011, with the merger of Eastern and Coastal Kent Community Services NHS Trust and West Kent Community Health and employs 5,500 staff.

It won foundation status on March 1, with the Care Quality Commission rating it ‘good’ in September 2014. Virgin Care already holds nearly 330 NHS contracts.

In 2012, it signed a £500 million, five-year contract to run community health services in Surrey, including seven community hospitals.