16.01.12
Private NHS work cap shifts to 49%
Labour is set to strengthen its opposition to the Government’s health reforms, claiming that the changes will privatise the NHS.
A Government amendment to the health bill, which is nearing the end of its marathon legislative journey, will expand the amount of private work carried out in NHS hospitals by lifting the current cap from 2% to 49%, Labour stated.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said: “David Cameron’s plan opens the door to an explosion of private work in NHS facilities, meaning longer waits for NHS patients and a two-tier health service in England.
“This 49% plan is the starkest sign yet of how the character of our NHS will change if Lansley’s bill gets through. In time,England’s hospitals could become like US hospitals, putting pursuit of profits before patient care.
“We have learnt from bitter experience not to trust the prime minister’s NHS pledges. Just two months after promising that there’d be no privatisation of the health service, his government outrageously orders the privatisation of three local services.
“Time is running out for the NHS and we urgently need to alert people to what is happening. From here on, Labour will call this bill as it is – a privatisation plan for the NHS.”
Health commentator and blogger Paul Corrigan, however, a former adviser to Labour health secretaries and Tony Blair, said there was a progressive argument in favour of lifting the cap, which he set out as follows: “One of the restrictions placed upon the autonomy of Foundation Trusts was an arbitrary limit on the amount of private health care they could provide. This limit was based upon the proportion of private health care they provided before they gained FT status. This varied from none, to over a quarter and therefore had no real rationale for the limitation in terms of market share – other than to limit their freedom. If it was alright for one hospital to derive 25% of its income from private patients why was it wrong for another to derive 2%?
“…We believe that it is now time to lift the arbitrary limitation of their flexibility…We believe that the best NHS public institutions are as good as the best private sector providers. We therefore believe that the best NHS provider institutions – Foundation Trusts – should be allowed to compete with the best private sector providers to provide those services.”
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