NHS privatisation: no more doubts

In the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, the coalition government still insists that the NHS is not set for higher and higher doses of privatisation. But revelations over the last week have once and for all lain to rest any remaining doubts.

 
In what’s being called the biggest NHS leak in history, the Guardian revealed today that (March 16) cancer and end-of-life care in Staffordshire could be cut following the offering up of contracts to private bidders worth more than £1bn.

 
A 24-page document leaked to Open Democracy, marked as “commercial in confidence” and the first of its kind ever disclosed to the public, details a cancer and end-of-life care contract for services in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, and how these services will be transformed after procurement.

 
Lung, breast and prostate cancer patients will be among the 800,000 patients affected by the procurement, in which it is feared that changes will mean services will be cut or be at the mercy of market-based decisions.

 
The value of the cancer and end-of-life care contracts is worth a combined £1.2bn, which will make it the biggest privatisation in the NHS’s history.

 
The private companies shortlisted for procurement include United Health, Virgin Care, CSC Computer Services, and Interserve Investments – all of which have had chequered histories.

 
For example, CSC Computer Services was handed over ÂŁ12bn by the UK taxpayer for an IT project that turned into an abject failure, while Interserve Investments is chaired by the former Tory policy chief Lord Blackwell.

 
‘Future of NHS at risk’

 
The news follows closely on the heels of another massive NHS privatisation deal struck, which was revealed last week and is valued at ÂŁ780m. The deal will see 11 private firms paid by the health service to perform heart, join and other types of operations, as well X-rays and diagnostic tests.

 
The profit-driven firms taking over the contract, much like those shortlisted for the Staffordshire contract, have also come under heavy criticism before.

 
One of these is Vanguard, which is now facing legal action after “rushed” eye operations conducted at Musgrove Park Hospital in 2014, in which many patients reported serious complications. Problems were so severe that Vanguard’s contract was terminated after only four days.

 
And who can forget another firm involved in this latest deal – Circle – which infamously pulled out of its contract in January to run the first fully privatised hospital, after being plagued by a series of failures?

 
Unite national officer for health Barrie Brown argued that this massive deal was deliberately pushed through by a government that’s determined to rush through health service privatisation before the election.

 
“The Tories are rushing to privatise the NHS through ‘quickie’ tendering processes before the general election is called,” he said. “Stripping the NHS of £20 billion has seen services fragmented and backlogs in some areas.

 
“But instead of pumping money into the NHS they are throwing it at their friends in private healthcare, some with very poor track records,” he added. “This is all about building private healthcare expertise and capacity so even more areas of NHS work can be privatised in the future.”

 
Brown went on to say that the latest health service privatisation contracts are only the beginning, depending on what happens after the general election in May.

 
“These huge contracts show that if the Tories win the coming general election the floodgates for more NHS privatisation will be opened and the future the NHS itself will be at risk. That is why the future of the NHS will be central during that election campaign.”

 
‘Financial interests run amok’

 
Recent research from Unite has prised open an even more insidious revelation, which shows just how deeply private interests are embedded in our public health service.

 
The research, published last week (March 10) found that one in four governing members of the Tory designed NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which have responsibility for a budget of ÂŁ65bn, have links to a private company involved in healthcare.

 
CCGs were a cornerstone of the Health and Social Care Act of 2012, a piece of legislation that’s enabled NHS privatisation on a massive scale. The groups, led by GP representatives from their geographical area, managers as well as lay persons, are responsible for commissioning services.

 
CCGs were supposed to give powers to GPs and other clinicians that enabled them to make commissioning decisions for their patients. Instead, however, they’ve opened the door to massive conflicts of interest.

 
One example of many detailed in the Unite study includes a GP group in Croydon, which paid more than a half a million pounds to a healthcare company of which half a dozen of its board members and senior clinicians are shareholders.

 
And it’s only set to get worse as CCGs are given more power to commission Primary Care. NHS England itself admits this will “increase the range and frequency of real and perceived conflicts of interest”.

 
Dr Ron Singer, chair of the Doctors’ section of Unite slammed CCGs and the legislation that gave birth to them.

 
“The Health and Social Care Act forced GPs into a business model that the vast majority did not want,” he said. “Most GPs want to spend their time caring for their patients, not tendering out services and being part of a bidding war.

 
“The government’s Health and Social Care Act is a disaster and is fit for the dustbin of history.”

 
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey agreed.

 
“The Tory designed Health and Social Care Act handed the NHS budget, worth tens of billions, over to Clinical Commissioning Groups and in doing so, created a monster, where personal financial interests run amok,” he said.
“The £3bn redesign has not only wasted taxpayers’ money and benefitted Tory donors but damaged the very fabric of our NHS. The Health and Social Care Act must be repealed.”