{"id":3384,"date":"2015-03-19T10:40:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T10:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3384"},"modified":"2015-03-19T16:28:32","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T16:28:32","slug":"hinchingbrooke-stark-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3384","title":{"rendered":"Hinchingbrooke: Stark warning"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

That Hinchingbrooke Hospital \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first privately run NHS hospital in history\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwas a complete disaster was further proved today (March 18) after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) concluded the experiment put the taxpayer at grave risk.<\/p>\n

 
\nPrivate operator Circle won a contract to run the hospital for 10 years, but pulled out in January, just after three years, when it failed to make the hospital financially solvent as it had promised.<\/p>\n

 
\nNot long before, in September of last year, the Care Quality Commission gave Hinchingbrooke an overall \u00e2\u20ac\u015binadequate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 rating.<\/p>\n

 
\nNow, the taxpayer will be forced to foot the bill of a privatisation scheme gone horribly wrong \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Circle amassed a \u00c2\u01417.5m deficit before jumping ship.<\/p>\n

 
\nPAC chair Margaret Hodge MP was scathing in her criticism of the way in which the contract was run.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDespite our warnings about the risks, oversight of the contract by the various parties who had a role was poor and inadequate and no-one has been held accountable for the consequences,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said, as part of a PAC report published<\/a> March 18.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs we warned in 2013, the taxpayer has been left exposed by the failure of the Hinchingbrooke franchise,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she continued.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCircle was not able to make the Trust sustainable and the NHS Trust Development Authority did not take effective action to protect the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was clear at the time the franchise was let that the Trust would only survive if it secured substantial savings, but the savings projected in Circle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bid were overly optimistic and unachievable.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nHodge went on to express fears that the mistakes made with Circle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s running of Hinchingbrooke would repeat themselves elsewhere in the health service, which continues to pursue a privatisation agenda.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are also concerned that lessons on awarding and managing major contracts will not be learnt from this venture,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Department told us that no trusts are currently considering an operating franchise model, but the NHS continues to award major, high value contracts.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite national officer for health Barrie Brown argued that the PAC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s findings come as no surprise.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe findings by the Public Accounts Committee confirm what we here at Unite have said all along \u00e2\u20ac\u201c NHS privatisation doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay, not for the taxpayer, nor the patient, nor health workers now facing unprecedented pressures,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHinchingbrooke should serve as a stark warning to any future bids for a corporate takeover of a public service. It hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worked now and it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work in the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That Hinchingbrooke Hospital \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first privately run NHS hospital in history\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwas a complete disaster was further proved today (March 18) after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) concluded the experiment put the taxpayer at grave risk.   Private operator Circle won a contract to run the hospital for 10 years, but pulled out in January, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[81],"wps_subtitle":"Privatised hospital failure proves a corporate-run NHS doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3384"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3385,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3384\/revisions\/3385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}