{"id":6846,"date":"2019-11-09T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/?p=6846"},"modified":"2019-11-09T12:07:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T12:07:54","slug":"the-national-health-service-privatisation-in-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/blog\/the-national-health-service-privatisation-in-prospect\/","title":{"rendered":"The National Health Service &#8211; Privatisation in prospect?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The rhetoric\nof all political parties is always that \u201cthe NHS is safe with us\u201d and that they\nare fully committed to maintain the NHS as a free public, nationalised service.\nEarly in this General Election, as reported in The Times and elsewhere, Boris\nJohnson even said that as far as rumours that the Tories would privatise the\nNHS, there was \u201cmore evidence for the Loch Ness monster and Bermuda Triangle\u201d.\nBut there is plenty of evidence from the government that Boris Johnson\nconsistently supported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What should concern objective commentators and voters is that under the Coalition Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and under the Conservatives since 2015, there has been extensive privatisation \u2013 real evidence of intentions, as documented in my recent book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/308\/308407\/plunder-of-the-commons\/9780141990620.html\">Plunder of the Commons.<\/a><\/em> Although it began under New Labour, privatisation was substantially accelerated by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/ukpga\/2012\/7\/contents\/enacted\">Health and Social Care Act of 2012<\/a>, which in all but name abolished the government\u2019s obligation to provide a comprehensive health service beyond emergency care and ambulances and which opened up NHS contracts to unlimited privatisation. <gwmw style=\"display:none;\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even\nexcluding the partial privatisation of GP work, dentistry and community\npharmacy, the NHS now contracts out over \u00a39 billion a year (8% of the NHS budget)\n\u2013 a figure rising steadily \u2013 to private companies, much to US multinationals\nand their subsidiaries, the most conspicuous being Optum, which now provides\nservices and medication management inside the NHS. Since 2015, Optum\u2019s owner\ncompany, United Health (the biggest healthcare company in the USA and world),\nhas been on the NHS Committee overseeing the award of contracts to private\nfirms. The chief of NHS England, appointed by David Cameron, was previously\nVice President of United Health. All of this is legal, but surely does not look\ngood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the\nConservatives, Aspen Healthcare, acquired by US Tenet Healthcare in 2015, has\nbeen bidding successfully for NHS contracts. US insurance company, Kaiser\nPermanente, has been given lavish contracts to provide management services to\nthe NHS. And Health Corporation America is running private medical services\nfrom NHS hospitals. These are just examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boris Johnson has consistently voted for the policies that has produced this privatisation. As a journalist, he was dismissed for making up stories. Perhaps we should start looking out for the Loch Ness monster.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo credit: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/paolomargari\/450792982\/in\/photolist-FQr3N-8q82Jh-FcFeJz-asFehC-9nL8Ay-pNjJFy-dTjCuj-9nHeCZ-GZLpbX-cZ2uz5-pNny8L-8HjBnJ-a2jSE6-aRWAEi-eADn72-aRWHT2-228jNJw-BzMt6-8HggQB-aRWMzn-d12VYU-8Hjqrw-9nHcRg-q5H1dT-47o2Rj-23LTBHm-LYzLY5-5JRstc-8Hgq1F-8HghYz-p8Y7wc-bVmjYt-8HghSP-9nH9uR-8HghGZ-9nL9Kh-8HjoNj-9nH3oi-aRWKyr-qannsh-8uorvF-LUqqHf-e7TPHb-Httkps-HQUN25-akt2BB-Rit4jS-22896aU-d4d5Tu-h7G5Qw\"><em>Flickr\/Paolo Margari<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guy Standing, PEF Council member and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, writes for the PEF blog on the ongoing privatisation of the National Health Service &#8211; with private contracts having now risen to \u00a39 billion a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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