The market is on the march in the NHS according to a preview of an upcoming Government White paper by Allyson Pollock and David Price in today’s Guardian. A major share of the NHS budget, (£80bn) could be handed over to private corporations which will buy hospital and community health services on behalf of General Practitioners.
“The proposal will advance the changes implemented under New Labour, where the impetus was to dismantle the mainly integrated structures and system of NHS health authorities, hospitals, clinics and specialists and GPs providing care to the whole population, replacing it with a market system under which private companies such as BUPA and US company UnitedHealth are given NHS funding and commercial contracts to supply clinical services.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/09/nhs-plans-gps-corporate-healthcare
“The vision of the future is one in which corporate interests will be given incentives to select patients, time-limit care, sell top-up insurance, and introduce charges for some elements of care no longer provided by the NHS. We may even see the development of practices competing against one another for members (patients), just like US health insurers. That's a chilling prospect for the elderly, those with chronic illness and people with mental illness and long-term needs, who are often of no commercial interest to the corporates because of their high healthcare costs.”