Private health care providers are being asked to bid on 1 500 procedures?
First, we need to clarify as to what that sentence means. The text does not tell us if this means just a total of 1 500 operations with many of them the same procedure or 1 500 entirely different procedures because the latter would of course suggest full-blown privatisation and the former, depending on the percentage, would not. 1 500 discrete procedures is not plausible but the idea makes for a good scare.
NHS Scotland does around 270 000 ops a year so that 1 500 is only 0.5%.
I can’t find a direct comparison for NHS England, but:
25% of all NHS England activity is privatised.
NHS Scotland spends around £37m with private companies or 0.24% of its £15.3bn budget.
NHS England is thus 100 times more privatised.
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 
What definition of ‘privatisation’ are they working to?
The definition that applies in England whereby whole services such as musculo-skeletal services in a trust area or cataract operations or paediatric care are put out for tender thus end up being run, often badly, by private health care companies such as Virgin Health Care.
Or is it the definition that applies in Scotland whereby the SG via NHS Scotland pays for patients to be sent to private hospitals for treatment if any Health Board has a growing backlog of patients waiting too long for treatment. They also pay to use MRI scanners etc in private hospitals thus increasing the capacity in any particular Health Board.
If the latter definition then this is a hoary old chestnut that Unionist politicians return to time and again when they need an SNPBad story.
Meanwhile what about the money the UKGov paid to private hospitals in England to purchase space/beds last year in the expectation that the NHS in England would be overwhelmed? Apparently it was quite a considerable sum that was paid but hardly any patients were sent to the private hospitals.
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Here is the link to the Private hospitals deal that I mentioned at the end of my post above
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/07/private-hospitals-treated-eight-covid-patients-a-day-during-pandemic-says-report
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I’d be interested in folks’ views on the implications of the recent Health & Care Act which appears to be accelerating the move to privatisation of more and more of the English NHS, I even read that a number of GP practices in London area are being targeted for takeover by an American Healthcare company. In particular, as more of their health spending is moved away from the Health Service budget, this must have a huge impact in coming years for SNHS funding via Barnet consequentials.
If we don’t have independence we could end up with a SNHS struggling to keep up the current level of spending.
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My view on the EngGovs’ ‘health and care act’ re England at the moment, (notice they don’t say ‘social care’, the Tories don’t do ‘social’) along with the EngGovs’ ‘Internal market bill’, is a massive assault on the public purse, and a huge concern for Scotland in terms of the SNHS funding, and the power grab they are imposing on Scotland as we speak. If John Swinney is openly worried about the power grab, then we should all be. I can imagine the anti independence folk being blind to this though, untiland only if it hits them personally in the pocket. The well-off still like free ‘care’ and NHS services, even the likes of the BritNats at Holyrood take free prescriptions and uni tuition for their kids as a given, all there because of the SNP! They’d scrap those things tomorrow though, if they were ever near the levers of power in Scotland. Free loaders hoping for a nice fat reward, (along with those like Baroness what’s her name, who also worked against the people of Scotland) by way of a nice cosy seat in the HO’s paid £300+ a day.
Hell mend ’em.
Also the coming years re SNHS being scrapped, it could be even sooner…unless Scotland has a way of stopping the Tory assault on Scotland’s public services and people. 🙂
Ps, where does all the money that the EngGov take in taxes etc from Scotland, and in fact rUK, go, do they pocket some, and keep a few quid to keep the plebs happy.
Can the SNP get some info out on what does really happen to revenues taken to London, is that in the free paper and has that been dropping through letter boxes yet?
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I read in the Guardian that in many English areas it is almost impossible to get an appointment to see a GP face to face. Callers are re-routed to a ‘Gateway’ or similar which will give a list of options and only when you pick one do you find that you are billed for the appointment.
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I think you’ll find in Scotland there has also become almost a rule that you have to get a telephone consultation before any actual face to face appointments, ie when GP decides he or she needs to see you!
Same with referrals to specialists who quiz you by phone then decide how to proceed. Probably originally due to Covid but found to be a time saver? Who knows?
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Someone at The Herald needs to look up the dictionary definition of ‘journalist’- then try employing a few !
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