Kingston NHS social enterprise experiment ‘could cost £578,000’
15th December 2009
Plans by Kingston Primary Care Trust (PCT) to hive off NHS
services into a social enterprise could cost nearly £600,000,
Unite, the largest union in the country, has said.
Unite believes that the money - £4 a head for Kingston’s
population – to set up the social enterprise could be better spent
on services, such as speech and language therapists, health
visitors, physiotherapists, and community nurses.
Using a Freedom of Information request, Unite has discovered
that:
- £181,000 has been spent in 2008/2009 on becoming ‘an autonomous
provider’ and ‘business ready’ organisation. A further £79,000 has
been earmarked for this ‘externalisation of provider services’ for
2009/10.
- If the social enterprise is not eligible for VAT refunds for
the purchase of goods and services, the additional cost will be
£300,000. The NHS is currently exempt from VAT.
- £18,000 has already been spent on ‘marketing and branding’ for
the proposed social enterprise, which will be a commercial
organisation, able to win – and lose – contracts to provide
services to the NHS for a limited period of time.
Unite is fighting the creation of the social enterprise – a body
one step removed from the NHS proper - as it contravenes health
secretary Andy Burnham’s recent policy announcement that the NHS is
‘the preferred provider’ for services.
Karen Reay, Unite national officer for health, said: ”Given the
relatively small 150,000- strong population of Kingston, the sums
that the PCT is spending on promoting the market dogma of the
social enterprise is staggering. We estimate that possible
expenditure is £578,000 – and still rising.
”Money that could be going on services, such as speech and
language therapists, is being spent on management consultants and
the bureaucracy to create the structures for the social
enterprise.
”We have repeatedly asked the PCT management to hold a ballot of
staff on all the options for the future, but they have adamantly
refused to go down the democratic route.”
Unite is concerned that if the social enterprise loses its
contracts to, for example, a North American private healthcare
company in five years time, jobs could be lost and services to the
Kingston public could become fragmented. The ethos of a NHS
providing a unified, joined-up service for patients could
disappear.
Karen Reay said: ”Social enterprises will mean the fragmentation
of services; and the employment conditions and pensions of NHS
staff being eroded, or even lost.”
The viability of the financial model proposed could be
jeopardised, if VAT is charged on its services not directly related
to health care, such as marketing and legal fees, and treatments
that may not be regarded as essential.
ENDS
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS:
Unite has welcomed the government’s statement, made in October,
that the NHS is ‘the preferred provider’ of choice when it comes to
delivering services, rather than private sector organisations.
In his letter to the chief executives of the strategic health
authorities and primary care trusts, NHS chief executive,
David Nicholson, said: “The NHS as the preferred provider is about
getting the best care for patients and looking after the NHS staff
who care for them. Our aim is to ensure that NHS staff are treated
fairly and engaged in decisions.”
The Patchwork Privatisation of Our Health Service – a special
report can be downloaded from www.unitetheunion.org/health
and then clicking on Health B4 Profit campaign.
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