'Proof' government plans to privatise NHS?
11/11
Exclusive: GPs say they have firm evidence now that the government is planning to privatise the National Health Service as part of its reforms.
In a document seen by Channel 4 News, plans are laid out for how services will be bought for patients.
And family doctors say the details show for the first time the scale of the involvement of private companies. The document, Developing Commissioning Support: Towards Services Excellence, is a draft sent out to various health organisations.
Under the NHS reforms, GP practices will form consortia and they will manage about 60 per cent of England's NHS budget. But it has been acknowledged that some GPs will not want to - or be capable of - managing such huge enterprises.
This document sets out how commissioning support units can be set up.
No private market?
Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association's (BMA) GP committee, said that the document was quite explicit in suggesting that the government was going to create a market for private companies to come in and take over these services and that commissioning groups would be too small do without support.
The government argues that commissioning groups (the GP consortia) will have the final say and will retain control. Dr Vautrey said not.
"Ultimately the commissioning support talk could wag the commissioning group's tail," he said.
"The GPs will simply be too small to have any clout."
The private companies, which could include the likes of KPMG or United Health, will not be able to start providing these services until 2016 and in the meantime the document lays out how staff from the soon-to-be defunct primary care trusts could carry out this work.
Doctors Channel 4 News has spoken to point to two pages in particular in the document. On page 14, the "back office functions" are laid out, which doctors say include "identifying best value providers to respond to service needs. Formal contract management, tendering and negotiations."
Page 16 states that clinical procurement - that is, purchasing healthcare - should be carried out at an appropriate scale, which includes learning disability and community services.
Source: Victoria Macdonald, Health and Social Care Correspondent, Channel 4 News
http://www.channel4.com/news/proof-government-plans-to-privatise-nhs