BMA report calls for safeguards against fragmented NHS

The independent sector should be subject to the same robust standards as NHS providers and managers must be wary of the health service becoming fragmented, a BMA report says. The association’s first report on privatisation in the health service is published today and calls for Government and health bosses to implement a series of recommendations aimed at protecting the NHS from being destabilised. It also urges commissioners and health chiefs to consider the possible negative effects of privatisation on training and recruitment and says the taxpayer must not be saddled with the costly legacy of private firms leaving contracts, as was the case at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire. BMA council chair Mark Porter said: ‘The NHS exists to provide the highest quality care for its patients. 'Anyone who doesn’t accept that, or gets in the way of achieving it, should not be allowed near it. 'That’s true for anyone who works in the health service, and it’s also true for any individual or company providing services within it.   Public domain ‘The BMA believes in a publicly funded, publicly provided health service. But if there have to be independent sector providers, is it not reasonable to ask of them what we would ask of any new porter, nurse or doctor coming to work in the NHS? ‘It’s not our job to support their shareholders. It’s their job to support our shareholders — every man, woman and child in the UK w...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news