IMPORTANT:

I nearly missed re-posting these comments, worthy of a wider audience than can sometimes be had, posted below another piece and after many readers have moved on. This is just what I have worried might happen since the dramatic swelling in our traffic over the last few months. I can’t keep track of everything.

Just for interest, after a long time ticking over at around 2 000 views per day, we’re, for reasons unclear to ‘the management’, currently beyond 5 000 per day and apparently still climbing, with more than 9 000 last Friday alone.

I’m grateful to Contrary for spotting this one and perhaps highlighting the way forward. If you see a comment you think worth of re-posting and note that I haven’t, remind me under a more recent post to look back for it.

One last thing. I can see this dragging me back into the kind of managerial activity, I’d hoped to leave behind, where people feel unfairly judged or neglected by me. It will just be a cock-up! Be kind.

And now:

sam

I have made this as brief as I can. More could be said about the links of Conservatives to private health. Here it is.

Mrs Thatcher began the privatisation of the NHS by opening portering, laundry, cooking and cleaning services to competitive tendering. The process drove down costs at the expense of services. By the end of the 1980s about half of the ancillary staff involved were not employed by the NHS.

This privatisation did not result in a better service. “Hospitals plagued by rats, fleas and leaking sewage” is a headline from The Times in April, 2018 describing England’s NHS. The Times said, “Almost all hospitals have suffered from pests while two thirds have leaking roofs and pipes after years of raiding maintenance budgets to cover day-to-day spending.” Rats have been seen in operating theatres, maternity wards and children’s intensive care units.

Research shows that outsourcing hospital cleaning results in higher levels of the dangerous MRSA infection though the costs were lower than in-house cleaning. A researcher said:”Outsourced services pose a [greater] risk to staff, patients and the wider population.” Contracted-out cleaning is cheaper but dirtier.

The Private Finance Initiative, PFI, is a means of building and maintaining hospitals using private sector finance. It is much more costly than if the government had borrowed to build.The building contracts prioritise PFI debt. When hospitals struggle to pay the PFI debt they merge, cut services and close wards. Alysson Pollock, professor of public health, says,”PFI, once trumpeted as the largest hospital-building programme, was in fact the largest NHS hospital and bed closing programme.”

Since 2012 competitive tendering for health services exists in England’s NHS. The private sector has won contracts worth many billions of pounds. In some cases, private companies simply fail to give good enough service. One case is that of Circle Health. Owned by a hedge fund, the company gave up the contract to run Hinchinbrooke hospital just before a damning report by the Care Quality Commission, CQC, was due. Among many failings, CQC gave the lowest possible rating for “care”. “Safety” and “leadership” were also lowest. There were insufficient qualified nurses. Patients were invited to use their beds as a toilet rather than have nursing help.

Private care companies need NHS consultants both to refer patients and to do work for them.There is competition for consultants who are paid by the job.It was under this arrangement that the breast cancer surgeon, Ian Paterson, did unnecessary operations on hundreds of patients and was jailed for 20 years. Some oncology consultants in London have been offered shares in the private companies seeking their employment, a clear conflict of interest.

Increased need and insufficient staff in England’s NHS mean longer waiting times for treatment. Staff recruitment and retention is a major problem. As a result, more patients (and staff) are turning to private healthcare. NHS staff in England have targets to meet.They are ordered to refer patients to private care to help meet targets. Over time, these arrangements will lead to a two tier system and harm Scotland by reducing the block grant available.

Jessica Arnold is an associate director of a NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. She made this public plea: “I implore anyone using private healthcare to be aware that they are effectively privatising the health service by doing so.” It may be too late. Privatising by attrition is under way.