Privatisation / commissioning - who’s involved?
Read openDemocracy stories on privatisation of the NHS (and other public services) here and here or see links on the right.
‘Who’s involved?’ Some profiles of private health companies from the NHS Supporters Federation. Corporate Watch and Keep Our NHS Public also have profiles.
Find OurNHS stories on Virgin, Circle, United Health, Spire, Care UK, G4S, Serco.
‘A Healthy Market’ - File on Four recently investigated how much we really know about the private companies now taking over the NHS.
‘MPs financial links to companies involved in private healthcare’ - a report by Andrew Robertson of Social Investigations.
Health Industry Lobbying Tour - a video by Tamasin Cave of Spinwatch/ The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency unpicking the links between government, lobbyists and private health companies.
Some 3rd sector organisations have become closely involved - OurNHS looks at the role of charities and mutuals.
Clinical Commissioning Groups are the body tasked with making local ‘commissioning’ decisions, see our page on understanding how and why they operate here.
Privatisation/commissioning - what’s the impact?
What’s the impact of privatisation? An A-Z index of issues from the NHS Supporters Federation.
‘Destabilising our Healthcare’ - How private companies could threaten the ethics and efficiency of the NHS’ - a report from the NHS Supporters Federation
‘Competition in the NHS - good or bad or something else?’ The (rather pro-market) Kings Fund collates the studies, though rather glosses over the difference between private competition (no evidence of benefit) and competition between NHS providers (a more mixed picture, possibly).
‘Competition in healthcare - the risks’ - An excellent and well referenced overview of the evidence by Dr Jonathan Tomlinson.
‘The madness of NHS privatisation’ - The evidence as collated by from Clive Peedell of the National Health Action Party.
Action
Give your GP a ‘No private provider’ postcard.
Find out what contracts are being put out to tender or ‘Any Qualified Provider’ (a kind of tendering) in your area (click on ‘find new opportunities’).
Whether services have already been privatised, or are threatened with it, or you just don’t know yet, ask some of the questions suggested in the TUC guide (especially p14-15) or the Keep Our NHS Public CCG guide.
Research your own MP’s financial interests.
See other campaigning tips on our 'Resources - Campaign tools' page here.
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