Concerns are growing that new EU regulations this month could leave commissioners in vanguard hospitals open to legal challenge if they do not carry out a full tendering process for new care models.

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which affect all EU countries, came into force on 18 April. Some NHS experts say these could have an impact on the vanguard new care models programme by increasing the risk of legal challenge where a non-competitive process is used. So far NHS England has not issued any guidance on how to deal with the changes despite being aware of the new rules for a year.