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NHS ‘giant privatisation experiment’ must stop, says Unite

8th June 2009

Privatisation of the NHS is ‘a giant experiment’ in an expensive untested system of funding healthcare which must be stopped, Unite, the largest union in the country, has warned.

Unite has launched The Patchwork Privatisation of our Health Service – a special report which highlights how private companies – with strong government encouragement - are taking over large swathes of the health service, including GP practices, with adverse knock-on affects for patients, clients, and the employment conditions of staff.

The report, which is a keystone of Unite’s Health B4 Profit campaign, also includes a checklist on how members, and the public, can fight back against this ‘new market system’ which is consuming billions of pounds in costly contracts for private companies that could be better spent on patient care.

The report said: "America, where private healthcare is most developed, spends over 16 per cent of its GDP on health, yet more than 45 million Americans lack any health insurance. Britain spends half that, yet the NHS covers everybody."

Unite’s national officer for health, Karen Reay, said: "Reading this document should make anyone concerned about the future of NHS very angry indeed.

"The myth that private companies can provide better services than the NHS is a giant experiment based on a flawed ideology that is failing on a daily basis, while costing the taxpayer dearly."

The report is peppered with examples of the failings of privatisation:

• The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) refinancing of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital saw the company’s profit margin jump from 19 per cent to 60 per cent

• Eye operations at an independent sector treatment centre in Portsmouth cost seven times more in its first six months than they would have done on the NHS

• Out-of-hours GP cover in Cornwall taken over by a private company saw people having problems seeing a doctor in the evenings and weekends.

Karen Reay said: "The privatisation tide is not irreversible. The public needs to be alerted as to what is happening – and the inevitable adverse consequences that have already become apparent."

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.
 
ENDS

Karen Reay, national officer, health 07798 531 004 or Shaun Noble, communications officer (health sector) 020 7420 8951 or 07768 693 940