Coalition to spend £850 million on NHS payoffs to pave the way for
privatisation, says Unite
8 February 2011
The government will spend more than £850 million in redundancy
payments to NHS managers and staff to pave the way for the
privatisation of the health service, Unite, the largest union in
the country, said today (Tuesday 8 February).
Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, has
repeatedly warned that the Health and Social Care bill was an ‘open
sesame’ to private health care companies – which the government
would pay handsomely to implement.
In an answer to a parliamentary question, minister of state for
health, Simon Burns, revealed that the cost for redundancy payments
for the 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) and 11 strategic health
authorities (SHA) came to £852 million.
Simon Burns told Grahame M. Morris, MP for Easington: ”The
government estimates the redundancy costs as £768 million for
primary care trusts and £84 million for strategic health
authorities.“
Unite’s national officer for health, Karen Reay, said: ”We are
not against employees receiving redundancy payments – however, this
enormous figure of £852 million is being used to facilitate the
takeover of the NHS by private healthcare companies – some of whom
are the very companies that have bankrolled the Tories to the tune
of £750,000 since David Cameron became leader in 2005.
”What will be sickening for the hard-pressed taxpayer is that
many of these managers, who will be receiving substantial pay-offs,
will walk into well-remunerated commissioning jobs with the new GP
consortia which are due to take over from the PCTs and SHAs.
”The whole bureaucratic reorganisation, outlined in the bill, is
estimated to cost between £1.5 billion - £3 billion. In this age of
grim austerity and daily cutbacks in services throughout the public
sector, the question must be asked: ‘Is this a good use of public
money?’
”Many organisations, such as the British Medical Association and
health charities, have raised serious questions about the bill, and
the more the debate rages, the clearer it becomes that health
secretary Andrew Lansley’s so-called reforms are based on ideology
and not patient care.”
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications
officer Shaun Noble on 07768 693940.
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