{"id":3864,"date":"2015-04-24T16:39:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T15:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3864"},"modified":"2015-04-27T15:27:30","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T14:27:30","slug":"sell-off-must-be-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3864","title":{"rendered":"Sell off must be stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GP surgeries run by the private sector underperform compared to NHS-run surgeries on nearly all counts, a new study<\/span><\/span><\/a> released today (April 24) has found.<\/div>\n
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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only the latest in a growing mountain of evidence demonstrating that NHS privatisation is harmful for all involved \u00e2\u20ac\u201c patients, staff and taxpayers.<\/div>\n
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Higher and higher doses of privatisation for the NHS is just what the Tories have planned, should they emerge victorious on May 8, as another recent survey<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and indeed their own manifesto \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has made clear.<\/div>\n
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But what exactly is wrong with continued privatisation of the health service? UniteLive investigates.<\/div>\n
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Wasted\u00c2\u00a0 money<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
The Tories claim to be the party of public spending restraint but the market experiment of the health service jumpstarted by their health and social care act of 2012 has only turbo-charged the criminal swindling of taxpayer money.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEvidence from around the world will tell you that market-based healthcare systems cost more \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not less \u00e2\u20ac\u201c than national systems like the NHS,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 claimed shadow health secretary Andy Burnham at a recent healthcare debate.<\/div>\n
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But does this claim stack up?<\/div>\n
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According to the New Economics Foundation<\/span><\/span><\/a>, costs per head in healthcare systems where the private sector dominates, as in the United States, are much higher than in countries with nationalised systems.<\/div>\n
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The NEF study notes that in 2008, the United States spent nearly $7,000 per person on healthcare. In the UK that same year, this figure was half as much.<\/div>\n
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The Centre for Health and the Public Interest reports<\/span><\/span><\/a> that the cost of administering the market in the NHS in England alone is \u00c2\u01414.5bn a year. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a conservative estimate, with one estimate being as high as \u00c2\u014130bn<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/div>\n
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Before Thatcher introduced the internal market to the NHS, administrative costs were only 5 per cent of the total NHS budget, but have skyrocketed to 15 per cent now.<\/div>\n
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These administrative costs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c paid for by the taxpayer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t include the billions wasted on other market features thrust on the NHS by the coalition government, such as PFI debt, which now runs into the hundreds of billions.<\/div>\n
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Patient choice, patient outcomes<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
The Tories rushed through privatisation of the NHS with their landmark piece of legislation, the health and social care act of 2012, under the aegis of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpatient choice\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, suggesting that market competition will, in the end, make the service better for patients.<\/div>\n
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Unite national officer for health Barrie Brown argues, however, that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpatient choice\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 was a smokescreen for simply bringing in private companies to begin digging for profit.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015b[Then health secretary] Lansley presented the act as a way to give patients choice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut patient choice is in no way at all dependent on giving opportunities to hundreds of private organisations to bid on and run services.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/div>\n
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The billions that NHS privatisation is costing the taxpayer may, some would argue, be worth it if private providers of health services actually improve patient outcomes.<\/div>\n
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But as the study on GP services published today has shown, the opposite is true \u00e2\u20ac\u201c private providers, in their endless quests for profits, cut corners so that, in the end, the service suffers.<\/div>\n
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Another review<\/span><\/span><\/a> of 33 studies assessing the impact of outsourcing on the delivery of NHS services found negative impacts in 18 studies.<\/div>\n
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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth noting, too, that because private providers lack transparency and aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t required to release as much performance data as NHS providers, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to comprehensively assess<\/span><\/span><\/a> just how better or worse patients fare with privatised services.<\/div>\n
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Patient choice, then, becomes patients being left in the dark, unable to make the right choice as private providers hide their performance data.<\/div>\n
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Under pressure<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
Rachael Maskell, a prospective parliamentary candidate for Labour in York Central believes privatisation is at the root of the intense pressures the health service is under now, especially in A & E.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPrivatisation of GP services leading to poor out of hours cover has exacerbated the crisis, but we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a crystal ball to see it coming,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSerco in Cornwall attempted to run the service with only one GP on call to cover the entire county.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is no wonder that people dial 999 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a number they trust, or go to A&E themselves. This intense demand placed on doctors, nurses and NHS staff generally is intolerable.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a depressing litany of mismanagement, with funding cuts to ambulance services along with the private sector stripping out the high volume, low risk work to make easy profits leaving intensive care and A&E to face intense demand,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/div>\n
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Maskell highlights one of the most harmful effects of privatisation in the NHS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c cherry-picking contracts, on which Labour has committed a decisive clampdown<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/div>\n
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Only the beginning<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
Privatisation of the NHS is still in its early stages but has accelerated enormously under the coalition government.<\/div>\n
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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a trend that Unite general secretary Len McCluskey highlighted.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSince the vote to sell-off our NHS, \u00c2\u014112bn of our services are now in private hands,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bKey clinical services including cancer care, blood analysis and mental health have been sold off or are up for sale. It is time to scrap the health and social care act and save our NHS.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a national scandal and the Tories must be held to account,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added McCluskey. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government had no mandate to sell-off our NHS but they did just that. You have to ask yourself why?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe next election will be make or break for our NHS. It is clear what Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preferred path is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an American-style health system,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey went on to say.<\/div>\n
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On the other hand, Labour has pledged several commitments to end privatisation of the NHS, including scrapping the health and social care act, capping profits on private companies tendering NHS contracts and ensuring the health service is protected from international trade agreements threatening privatisation, such as TTIP.<\/div>\n
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Unite head of political Jennie Formby, like McCluskey, said the choice in May is clear if we are to protect the NHS.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is only one party committed to saving our NHS and repealing the hated health and social care act \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/div>\n
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GP surgeries run by the private sector underperform compared to NHS-run surgeries on nearly all counts, a new study released today (April 24) has found. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only the latest in a growing mountain of evidence demonstrating that NHS privatisation is harmful for all involved \u00e2\u20ac\u201c patients, staff and taxpayers. Higher and higher doses of privatisation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[29],"wps_subtitle":"Selling off \u00c2\u014112bn in NHS services is a national scandal ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864"}],"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=3864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3865,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864\/revisions\/3865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}