29.07.14
‘Halt privatisation of NHS services until after election’ – Burnham
Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham MP has written to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens urging a ‘pause’ in privatisation of services until after next year’s general election.
Burnahm will say in a speech today that “privatisation is being forced through at pace and scale”, and he has called for a halt to outsourcing plans unless patient safety or service is at risk.
The Department of Health said about 6% of the NHS budget is spent in the private sector, up 1.3% on 2010, according to the BBC.
Burnham said privatisation plans like the £1.2bn cancer care contract in Staffordshire have never got a proper mandate from the public.
Briefings suggest he will say in his speech: “It is indefensible for the character of the country's most valued institution to be changed in this way without the public being given a say.”
The government pointed to Labour’s and Burnham’s own record on privatisation, especially during the final years of the last government, saying use of the private sector ‘doubled’.
A spokeman said: “Andy Burnham himself signed off the privatisation of Hinchingbrooke Hospital during Labour's final year so it is pure political posturing to try to interfere with doctors making the best clinical judgements for patients.”
NHS Confederation chief operating officer Matt Tee said: “Short and long term contracts have their place in the NHS. The test should be what is right for patients and local communities. Our members are very clear that there are plenty of things which keep them awake at night, but contracting is rarely cited as one of them.
“The 2015 Challenge encourages politicians of all parties to engage with the real issues facing the health and social care system and to play their part in taking forward an honest debate with the public about how to address them.”
NHS Partners Network chief executive David Hare said: “Private sector providers of NHS clinical services are an integral part of the modern health service and deliver extremely high standards of care. Depriving patients of the capacity and innovation brought by private sector providers would be a disaster for the NHS and prevent new models of care emerging. It is vital that local commissioners are enabled to make the decisions they feel appropriate for patients in their area and a crude restriction on a provider based on their ownership type would be very limiting for the NHS at a time of significant financial challenge.”
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