-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Blair's last laugh
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:25:47 +0100
From: Keep Our NHS Public <[log in to unmask]>
To: Alex Scot Samuel <[log in to unmask]>
Financial Times (2 June)
*US health companies may win the chance to buy NHS care.* Two
big US
health care companies and Bupa are among those that have won a
contract
that could herald fundamental changes in the way the NHS
operates. Bupa,
and the US-owned United Health and Humana are among those who
may now be
given the role of buying some health services on behalf of the
NHS. The
so-called "framework" deal allows primary care trusts (PCTs),
who buy
care on behalf of patients, to call on the analytic and
commissioning
skills of the private sector companies, without having to go
through a
full tender process. Companies can qualify to provide anything from
"micro" services, through to, in effect, running the entire
commissioning process for a primary care trust. Allowing the
private
sector a big role in commissioning care on behalf of NHS
patients is
close to the "last frontier" of the government's Blairite NHS
reforms.
Private hospitals now operate on NHS patients who are
increasingly being
given the right to go to any hospital that will treat them at
the NHS
price. The private sector provides much mental health and other
care to
the NHS, with contracts to provide diagnostics being extended. Some
companies, such as United, Dr Foster and CHKS already provide
analytic
and other help with commissioning. But the new framework
potentially
offers the private sector a much wider role. Because the deal is a
framework, it will be up to primary care trusts how much use
they make
of it. It could therefore be barely used at all, or, over time,
could
reshape the way care is bought on behalf of patients.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a9b911f2-10a5-11dc-96d3-000b5df10621.html
Alex Nunns
Information Officer
Keep Our NHS Public
07763607528
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
www.keepournhspublic.com <http://www.keepournhspublic.com>
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