NHS ‘fire sale’ is short-term thinking at its worst

Dozens of NHS sites still being used for medical care are up for sale [Image: Getty].

The minority Conservative government has doubled the amount of NHS property it wants to sell, triggering concerns over the service’s financial viability under the Tories.

The plan is to sell off property – including sites that are still being used – in order to raise a quick £10 billion. The problem is that, once the money has been used, the property will be gone. It is short-term thinking that predicts a dire future for health care in the UK.

And why is the nature of some of the land being hidden behind claims that it is “sensitive”? How is it “sensitive”? Is it “sensitive” because it is necessary for the proper functioning of the service, and selling it off will harm healthcare?

Is that how it is “sensitive” – and we’ll only be allowed to know this after it has been sold and there’s nothing to be done?

This is a travesty.

The NHS needs investment. But that’s exactly the opposite of what Tory governments do.

Tories are asset-strippers.

They take from the state, and give to the rich.

That has always been their plan for the NHS.

Already waiting lists are longer than ever before. And, under the Tories, it can only get worse.

A secret “fire sale” of hospital land – including dozens of properties still being used for medical care – is planned to bail out the cash-strapped NHS, new documents show.

The Department of Health has quietly doubled the amount of land it intends to dispose of, triggering accusations of desperate measures to plug a big hole in NHS finances.

Details of more than half of the 1,300 hectares now up for sale have been kept under wraps because of “sensitivity” – raising suspicions that many other sites also have clinical uses.

The revelation comes after the Naylor review called for the NHS to adopt “a more commercial approach” to selling off assets – branding them a “source of untapped value” – and was embraced by Theresa May to help inject £10bn into the NHS.

Read more: Tory government quietly doubles number of NHS properties it is selling off


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No Comments

  1. NMac August 11, 2017 at 1:04 pm - Reply

    The sly and underhand Tory plan is to destroy the NHS. It has been their aim since the summer of 1948, but they don’t have the guts to say so outright and the man in charge Jeremy Hunt, despite his stupid inane grin, is one of the most corrupt and dishonest of the nasty Tory bunch.

    • Dez August 11, 2017 at 4:20 pm - Reply

      I’m sure that slimy Hunt will do well out of his nasty work as do most of the other Cons who are instrumental in disposing of OUR other taxpaid for assets and services. May they all be rewarded suitably in the hereafter……downstairs in the boiler room!!

  2. Barry Davies August 11, 2017 at 2:33 pm - Reply

    Apparently the dept go Health is withholding £120 million form CCG’s to help balance it’s books, as it is the CCG’s who are supposed to be money holders, and to commission the services, how on earth can the dept of health need to withhold anything ?

    • Dez August 12, 2017 at 4:51 pm - Reply

      So why are none of the CCG’s who are supposed to be acting on the public behalf not on the streets rioting or complaining to the media or even going public on this disgraceful situation. The CCG’s I attend are just talking shops rubber stamping lots of verbal, you know what discharges, which are dutifully rubber stamped I cannot say I have ever heard them bitching that they have been robbed by this Government withholding their patients funding. Labour did also participate in the Naylor review but not as strongly as selling off live hospital units only surplus or redundant units.

  3. Fibro confused August 11, 2017 at 6:17 pm - Reply

    Any estimates on just how much of the NHS is now in private hands?

    I am going to need surgery, but I know just to see the consultant will take 6 months plus, then another long wait for the surgery, in the mean time one fall could mean me loosing the use of my legs possibly my arms too and even my ability to breathe on my own will is at risk. I thought you know what, might as well get the inevitable private medical insurance now, after trying 5 companies I gave up, it was either a straight forward no we won’t insure you or yes at over £200 a month and even then further fee’s would be payable as I have a chronic illness I can’t get full cover.

    What it will take for people to see what’s happening to our NHS??
    It’s damn scary and upsetting.

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