Image: Protest against Bristol NHS children's services being privatised. Rights: James Beecher
The Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG], the local body responsible for determining the contracts for a wide range of health care services, is seeking support from the city’s GPs to endorse a change to the CCG constitution that would allow tax-avoiding corporations to bid for NHS contracts. Under the existing constitution, agreed in 2012, they are prohibited from doing so.
The CCG describes this as ‘a minor change’, but as we know from the reaction to the Google tax deal, tax avoidance is an issue of mounting public concern. For health services it is an especially critical matter as it supports the drive toward further privatization.
