Private companies must be made to reveal NHS profits say
Unite
3 November 2007
Unite, the UK’s largest trade union is calling for the profits
that private companies are earning from NHS contracts to be made
public.
On the day that thousands of NHS workers and patients march and
rally in central London in support of a publicly run and publicly
accountable NHS, Unite has demanded that full details of profits
made by private contractors operating in the NHS should be
disclosed.
Unite say that commercial confidentiality means that few details
are available to evaluate if private companies are providing value
for money in the NHS.
Unite say that the only government figures available on non-NHS
provision of healthcare is £4.1 billion for 2004-05 which accounts
for 5.6% of total NHS spend for that period. This figure includes
contracts let to the private sector, local authorities and
not-for-profit. It does not include long standing arrangements
relating to general medical, pharmaceutical and optical services
and the purchasing of supplies. It also excludes the cost of GPs,
pharmaceutical and supply contracts.
Derek Simpson, Joint General Secretary of Unite trade union,
said: "There is a complete absence of evidence and rigorous
evaluation of private contracts operating in the NHS and billions
of pounds of public money is being spent and many more billions of
pounds of profits earned. As well as undermining the public ethos
of the NHS, this creeping privatisation is sucking the lifeblood
out of public health care in Britain and depriving the NHS of vital
funds.
"We want real and effective monitoring of NHS private contracts
to establish whether or not they are providing value for money,
delivering efficient services and offering the best in patient
care. We also want to know exactly what profits private companies
are earning from NHS contracts.
"Until these things are established no further private sector
contracts should be awarded in the NHS and the plan to open up the
commissioning of services to the private sector should certainly be
halted."
Unite are opposed to privatisation of public services because of
the lack of accountability and democratic oversight. The UK’s
largest trade union says that non of the NHS reforms involving
privatisation have been through Parliament, despite the fact that
many of the changes involve fundamental changes to the NHS.
Up to fourteen major companies and multinationals, some of them
featured in Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’ on the US health system
failures, have won contracts for running major NHS services, from
diagnostics, GP services and running hospitals through to MRI
Scans, Independent Treatment Centres and ambulance services.
Last year companies were invited to tender for the commissioning
of primary care in the NHS which accounts for 80% of the National
Health budget. Unite are unhappy with the weak criteria made
available by the Department of Health for commissioning which they
say can be bid for by the same companies, or offshoots of them,
creating the potential for business carve ups and clear conflicts
of interest.
It was reported in the financial press in 2004 that just one of
the large firms involved, Tribal Group, which has a turnover of
£230m made 96% of its income from the taxpayer.
An estimated £23 billion of profit has been earned by private
companies over the length of their contracts from the building and
delivery of services through Private Finance Initiatives.
Notes to editors
- Unite has produced a new booklet, ‘Patchwork
Privatisation’ with ‘Keep NHS for use by its’ 100,000 NHS
members http://www.amicustheunion.org/patchworkprivatisation
- Contracts worth £1 bn for diagnostic centres
have been let.
- Commercial providers have won 20% of the
market revenue in out-of-hours GP contracts.
- Alliance Medical won a contract worth £95m to
run MRI scans.
- The private sector have also been providing
treatment directly through the ISTC programme over the last couple
of years with the justification that they was/is a need very
quickly to expend health service capacity. Estimates place the cost
of procedures carried out in ISTCs at approximately 11% more than
equivalent NHS rates. The total ISTC programme will cost the
taxpayer just over £5 bn, providing about half a million procedures
every year which is close to 10% of the total elective workload of
the NHS. In July 2006 the Health Select Committee found that this
“would clearly affect the viability of many existing NHS providers
over the next five years and possibly beyond. ISTCs receive payment
irrespective of the number of procedures they perform. There is no
evidence they have helped to reduce waiting times.
- In December 2006 New Forest Hospital in
Lymington in the New Forest became the first hospital to not only
be a PFI build but totally run by the private sector, although the
hospital will continue being paid for by the NHS.
- Last year companies were invited to tender
for the commissioning function of PCTs, so taking on the function
of all or part of the process of drawing up contracts and deciding
how to award them to provide local health services. It has since
been revealed that multinationals and large firms such as McKinsey,
UnitedHealth, Bupa, Human, Discovery and Tribal Group have all
concluded the first stage of the DoH bidding process.
- The National Audit Office reported in
December 2006 that spending on private consultants to provide
advice to overspending PCTs had reached £500 million.
Please call Catherine Bithell in the Unite press office for
further information on 020 7 420 8909 or 07958 473
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