NHS 'no longer exists'
Released 23/12/2009
Doctors express concerns over privatisation
Eight out of ten doctors are concerned about private companies profiting from the NHS, a poll shows today.
The online poll was commissioned by the BMA and carried out by Doctors.net.uk the - UK's largest online network of medical professionals. Doctors.net.uk members were asked:
"The BMA's ‘Look after our NHS' campaign is concerned that some large multinational companies are making profits out of running local clinical services on behalf of the NHS. To what extent do you agree with the campaign's concerns?"
There were 697 responses with 80 per cent saying they either strongly agreed (51 per cent) or agreed (29 per cent) with the statement. Just 7 per cent said they either disagreed (4 per cent) or strongly disagreed (3 per cent).
The BMA also publishes today a paper listing reports of public money being wasted as a result of market-driven reforms Examples include an estimate that as much as £1.54 billion might have been overpaid to Independent Sector Treatment Centres in England, and figures showing that the NHS in England spent around £350 million on private management consultants in the last financial year.
Comments from Doctors.net.uk's members included:
"The process of outsourcing previously public services to private industry often works very badly - witness the railways, London Underground, private prisons. Its application to the NHS is a major threat to the public health." Clinical assistant in general surgery
"The NHS no longer exists. There are a number of health services in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, all different, no longer national in a UK sense. We are at a time when Foundation Trusts have become businesses, motivated by profit and loss." Consultant urologist
"Our glorious leaders seem determined to follow the USA into healthcare economic oblivion. Based on a blind and stupid belief that private provision is always best." GP
Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said:
"This is more evidence of the medical profession's concerns about commercial values being imposed on the NHS. There are countless examples of taxpayers' money being wasted because of the drive for services to be provided by profit-making companies rather than traditional NHS providers. When politicians talk about cutting waste they should consider the fact that the bureaucratic costs of a market are hitting the taxpayer hard. We'd like to see the NHS in England restored to a publicly provided, publicly funded service, driven by the needs of patients, not shareholders."
The BMA's Look After our NHS campaign (www.lookafterournhs.org.uk) has been gathering information from doctors on their experiences of NHS market reforms. It will be launched to a public audience early next year.
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