{"id":18796,"date":"2019-09-09T16:17:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T15:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18796"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:55:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:55:35","slug":"nhs-privatisation-back-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18796","title":{"rendered":"NHS privatisation by the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bback door\u00e2\u20ac\u0165"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite delegate Suzanne Abachor addressed the TUC today (9 September) on the dangers of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbackdoor\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 NHS privatisation through the setting up of wholly owned subsidiaries.<\/p>\n

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The union has waged an extensive campaign against NHS trusts creating wholly owned subsidiaries<\/a> as they could lead to job losses and salami slicing of service provision.<\/p>\n

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NHS trusts are not allowed to register for VAT exemption, despite competitor companies working for the health service being able to do so.<\/p>\n

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Speaking in support of a motion on the issue, Abachor said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bCongress – this motion is about calling out wholly owned subsidiaries for what they are really about: NHS privatisation smuggled in through the backdoor.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnder the pressure of austerity and stretched budgets, NHS trusts are forming these entities so they can compete on a level playing field with their commercial competitors – who can register for VAT exemption when NHS trusts cannot.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Core members of the NHS family<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Abachor said the creation of such firms is resulting in \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcore members of the NHS family\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who work for the health service as plumbers, fitters, porters and cleaners \u00e2\u20ac\u201c seeing their jobs hived off into separate subsidiaries.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is what happens when you introduce commercial competition into a publicly run service,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Abachor said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll talk of being more \u00e2\u20ac\u0098commercial\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sustainable\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 boils down to short changing hard working staff and endangering patients.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut Congress, all these subsidies do is open a Pandora\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Box – exposing the health service to the threat of dozens of Carillion<\/a>-type meltdowns.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The consequences of collapse would then be passed down to frontline services and patients, Abachor said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese dangerous subsidiaries are simply not the answer to the last eight years of chronic underfunding of the NHS and the parlous finances of many NHS trusts in England,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut Congress, the tide is finally turning against these ponzi schemes. NHS<\/a> Trusts from Leicester to Leeds, Wear Valley to Bristol have all abandoned plans to create wholly owned subsidies for key services \u00e2\u20ac\u201c following grassroots pressure from an alliance of unions and patient groups.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite delegate Suzanne Abachor addressed the TUC today (9 September) on the dangers of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbackdoor\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 NHS privatisation through the setting up of wholly owned subsidiaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[29,81,977],"wps_subtitle":"Unite delegate Suzanne Abachor warns of danger posed to NHS by wholly owned subsidiaries","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18796"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25035,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796\/revisions\/25035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}