Privatisation of the NHS supply chain has created a complex, fragmented, unresponsive and bureaucratic mess which has left us unprepared and ill equipped to tackle the current crisis. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out. Currently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) determines the price of drugs by looking at how much they improve quality of life. “Privatisation is where non-government bodies become increasingly involved in the financing or provision of health care services”. Vote to save it, Journal, 5 December). Registered in England. No, although the two issues have become conflated in discussions about the NHS. NHS privatisation controversy set to continue. Something went wrong. The bottom line is “full market access for US products” would mean higher drug prices for the NHS. Numerous significant NHS services have already been outsourced, ie, contracted out to private, profit-making companies. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Trading the NHS, what does Trump want on the table? Keep Our NHS Public, NHS Support Federation and other groups have campaigned against the threat of privatisation, largely in England.. When Britain leaves the EU it will have to negotiate a trade deal with the US, which has already laid out a “Summary of Specific Negotiating Objectives”, part of which has made critics of NHS privatisation nervous. Dmitry Grozoubinski is the founder of ExplainTrade.com. Whether a government led by Boris Johnson sticks by this policy remains to be seen. Private companies have always played a role in the NHS, but critics claim that their increasing involvement is evidence of growing privatisation of care and is undermining the service’s core values. (anatomy) Privatisation’ is a politically-charged term without a precise definition. He told HuffPost UK: “If you have an environment where private providers are encouraged to work in parallel with the traditional NHS providers, they’re not going to be interested in the stuff that’s high intensity and low margins. Trump and The UK Trade Bill, why should we be worried? “The worst-case is we reach a Mexican standoff with the American government and they say: ‘Well, we insist drugs are on the table, and if they’re not then we won’t sign a trade deal with you.’”. In conjunction with the Conservatives’ dramatic reduction of NHS funding, and resultant loss of services and escalation of waiting times, this has led to progressive fragmentation of the NHS. We’ll have a new commenting experience online soon. Long NHS waiting times lead an increasing number of patients, including many who can ill-afford it, to seek private treatment. Former Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan admits assaulting ex-fiancee. We do not believe that a trade deal could stop the NHS being publicly funded and free at the point of use. But even more concerning than this overall picture is the detail of where private companies have chosen to expand. Please see our. So why are politicians arguing about it still? Vision 2020: How soon will we know the US election outcome? Boris Johnson asserts repeatedly that the NHS will not be privatised or sold to the US, and will remain free to all at the point of need – a characteristic obfuscation. It is funded mostly through taxation and national insurance contributions with a small portion collected through charges to patients, such as those paid-for prescriptions. Privatisation of the NHS supply chain has created a complex, fragmented, unresponsive and bureaucratic mess which has left us unprepared and ill equipped to tackle the current crisis. “And that’s when you have this doomsday scenario of £500million extra a week [being charged to] the NHS.”. I’ll say – it shows us what an increasingly privatised NHS is likely to resemble, and the graphic scenes of life and health for the poorest in the US are chilling indeed. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion. Dr Andrew Hill is a senior visiting research fellow in the pharmacology department at Liverpool University. “The NHS would remain under state control. “So if American companies can get a higher prices for drugs in the UK, it could reap benefits for them in a whole host of other countries.”. In Britain it is associated with the sell-off of nationalised industries and utilities under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. All valid questions that HuffPost UK will answer for you in due course. Academic definitions see outsourcing as a type of privatisation. Please read our comment moderation policy here. Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We are researchers and journalists investigating and campaigning in support of our NHS. Company registration number 09788095. For. Renationalisation of the NHS will be extremely complex, but is imperative if it is to survive.Mary AshdownOxford, • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com, • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters, • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If it is generally undesirable to introduce a money-making motive into a health setting, as most people believe it is, it is nowhere less appropriate than in an environment where trust, professional judgments and staff-patient relationships underpin good outcomes. Explained: What NHS Privatisation And 'On The Table In Trade Talks' Actually Mean Chris York. Recent research highlights the potential for conflicts of interest, with Virgin Care among providers to have an ownership structure that is opaque. NHS funding, already squeezed, is draining into the profits of private companies. • It is unfortunate that Labour’s election campaign has not given greater prominence to the points raised by Denis Campbell (Private firms win £15bn of NHS contracts in five years, 30 November) and other letter writers (Private contracts at heart of NHS crisis, 7 December). “There is a role for the private sector, not in direct patient care, but in other areas,” he said. “I don’t think it’s privatisation,” says Dr Hill. “The NHS would have a higher drugs bill and it would have to adjust accordingly. So what? Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG. Speaking about their failures, We Own It director Cat Hobbs said: It is beyond scandalous that so much of the coronavirus response has been handed over to private companies – companies that have failed time and time again to deliver. “US drug prices are two and a half times higher and that’s a very conservative estimate – they could go even higher,” says Dr Hill. A "no to health privatisation" sign in a protest in 2006 at Whipps Cross hospital in London. But despite many millions of pounds being spent in the 2000s, it didn’t come to pass.”. Labour has for some time argued that the NHS is vulnerable to privatisation under the Conservatives. Ministers often refute accusations of it by saying that there is no 'sell off' of the NHS, but many of the ways in which the the private sector have been involved in the NHS would qualify as privatisation according to these academic definitions. Contact: hello@thecanary.co. These extraordinary figures should be far more widely known, and opponents of NHS privatisation are rightly angry. Marr outdoes himself by burying Hancock’s Mail on Sunday embarrassment, We face a quiet threat to the independence of our elections. This crisis has shown us that the NHS is made far more vulnerable by privatisation, and so many failings – from the failure to distribute sufficient PPE to the ineffective approach to testing  – lie at the door of private companies. The NHS is immensely expensive to run – the total budget allocated for the NHS in England 2018/19, for example, was £126.4bn and nearly 10% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) goes towards healthcare expenditure. Rhetoric around the threat of privatisation in the NHS has also focused on the terms of any potential trade deal with the US after Brexit. In particular, the breaking up of the NHS Supply Chain into 11 outsourced contracts affected the ability of the NHS to get and distribute enough PPE. “The one legitimate thing to say is that the UK will never more vulnerable in the trade negotiation than immediately after Brexit with the US,” says Grozoubinski. When is the 2020 US election and will it go ahead as planned? Systematically starved of funds during a decade of austerity, NHS trusts have been forced to outsource. One of the satisfactions of my 35-year stint as an NHS hospital consultant has been to treat patients visiting from the US from time to time, and listen to their astonishment at the massive difference between what they had been led to expect of the NHS, and what it’s actually capable of delivering.Prof Jeffrey TobiasUniversity College London Hospitals, • If every voter read Rob Delaney’s article immediately before putting their cross on the ballot paper, Labour would win by a landslide.Teresa HeeksIronbridge, Shropshire, • Of course Donald Trump has no interest in “buying” the NHS – the idea of a health service that is free to all at the point of need sounds far too much like socialism and is anathema to him. Largely due to the devotion of staff and their belief in the ethos of the NHS, it still works pretty well despite decades of appalling underfunding. Editorial: Facts on the ground, such as private companies’ 44% share of child mental health spending, make a mockery of ministers’ promises In Britain it is associated with the sell-off of nationalised industries and utilities under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. The key phrase here is “provide full market access for US products” and how it applies to drugs bought by the NHS for use in the UK. Where their role in diagnostic testing and routine operations such as hip replacements was conceived as a way to reduce waiting times, the delivery of highly complex mental health services is a different matter. And shadow chancellor John McDonnell has, in recent days, repeatedly insisted Labour will stop the privatisation of the health service. While poor practice is not limited to private providers, on accountability and transparency measures they fall far short. Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition, With the National Health Service a prominent issue in this general election, readers air their views.

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