As the misnamed Health and Care Bill goes before MPs, here’s what it will do
Not for sale: sadly, this is just an aspiration now – held by those of us who still think healthcare should be based on patient need and not on provider profit.
Services will be cut or rationed and the NHS will become an unregulated market for healthcare firms under Sajid Javid’s contradictorily-named Health and Care Bill which – if enacted – will support neither.
That’s the message from Keep Our NHS Public campaigners.
The Bill will break the NHS into 42 separate ‘Integrated Care Systems’ (ICS), each with its own – tight – budget that could lead to cuts in care.
These new organisations would be open to the private sector – and the removal of competitive tendering means contracts could be handed straight to asset-stripping profiteers.
Already, 200 firms are connected to the new ICS structure, including at least 30 US-based health insurance companies.
Companies could be given access to confidential patient information, more patient care will be given by less qualified staff who are cheaper, and non-urgent referrals to hospital delayed or refused because of pressure to make savings.
A drive towards cash-saving digital services means face-to-face GP appointments may end.
The long-awaited overhaul of the care system may end up being a demand on already-overworked family carers to take on more unpaid work as unprofitable community services are stripped away altogether.
National agreements on pay, terms and conditions for NHS staff may be swept away with employees ordered to work wherever private-sector employers find it easiest to make a profit – undermining team working, union organisation and continuity of care.
Oh, and you remember the much-anticipated return of responsibility to the Secretary of State? It means a politician will be able to make devastating decisions about the NHS without any democratic accountability.
The Health Secretary will be able to deregulate jobs – offering them to candidates who don’t have the right qualifications but are available for the right price, risking harm to patients and interfering with professional judgement and staff development.
The NHS will be exempt from the Public Contract Regulations 2015, meaning it will be impossible to reject bids for contracts on the grounds of non-compliance with environmental, social, or labour laws guaranteeing Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike, or on the basis of a bidder’s previous history.
The Health Secretary will also impose local service reconfigurations, weakening or abolishing the right and power local authorities currently have to scrutinise significant health changes.
According to Dr John Lister, Secretary of Keep Our NHS Public and health policy academic
This Bill will not treat even one extra patient, or recruit one extra nurse
He asked why the new law is being deemed so urgent and important – but isn’t it obvious?
Javid, Johnson and the other Tory parasites want to turn your health into a profit-making industry for their donors as soon as possible.
I’ve just picked out the headline issues. Read more details here: Health and Care Bill means lucrative NHS contracts will be dished out ‘without competition’ | Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK’s progressive debate
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Even before any Bill is discussed I’m already experiencing a lot of these issues.
1. The last 2 years my medication review was only a GP phone call (even though I’m half-deaf in both ears) but this year, a choice of an online (made in USA) form or a nurse.
2. I have recently twice been “randomly” selected for a Covid trial where NHS Digital assures me that my name and address is not shared, but the right-leaning Ipsos Mori controlling it has boasted having my name, address, telephone number, age and NHS number.
Even though I’ve opted out of having my data shared, they quote Government Covid Laws as the reason I have no choice.
This can’t be right having a private marketing company (with previous form- see EE case ) in possession of enough data for identity fraud of every UK citizen and being paid for the privilege.