health - new minister, new privatisation
WORKERS, JUNE 2005 ISSUE
Patricia Hewitt, the new Secretary of State for Health, is a keen supporter of Euro-liberalisation. Within a fortnight of the election, she has proposed pushing ahead with increasing the proportion of operations on NHS patients carried out by the private sector, towards a target of 15%. This doubles the amount of money going into the private sector at the expense of the National Health Service. Unison's head of health, Karen Jennings, expressed the union's disappointment.
Unison's view is that operating capacity must be built up in the NHS. That this is the way to stop waiting lists building up all over again. Unison says, "The private sector will cherry pick the easiest operations, leaving the NHS to carry out all the more expensive, difficult ones."
The president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland has criticised government policies for "independent sector treatment centres". Billions of pounds will be siphoned off to private health corporations. The association's president, Robert Lane, said the private centres were undermining clinical services, they were "cream-skimming" the easy operations. The view was massively endorsed at the recent ASGBI Conference in Glasgow in mid April.
The Royal College of Surgeons also condemned the system, pointing to adverse effects the privatisation has on training of new surgeons. There will not be enough simple operations carried out in the NHS for junior doctors to develop their skills.