Did anyone else get a sense of déjà vu reading that? Here's the FT's report of Hewitt's speech to ippr last September where she said the same thing (although the other papers took the opposite line, ie that she was saying 'no limit to private sector'):
NATIONAL NEWS: Companies' role in NHS care 'to be set locally'
By Nicholas Timmins,Public Policy Editor, Financial Times
Published: Sep 20, 2006
An end seemed in sight to the era of big, centrally negotiated contracts between private health providers and the government yesterday when Patricia Hewitt said patients, primary care trusts and family doctors would decide the extent of private sector involvement in the National Health Service.
In a speech in London to the Institute of Public Policy Research, the think-tank, the health secretary risked the wrath of trades unionists and Labour left-wingers by declaring that the government would set no curbs on the extent of private sector provision of NHS care.
"We don't need to set arbitrary targets or limits for one provider or another" - whether the private or voluntary sector, or direct NHS-owned provision, she said.
Instead, the answer to the question "where will the NHS be in five, 10 or 15 years" would come "not from Whitehall but from the choices of patients, the decisions of local commissioners and the creativity of hospital and community staff".
If independent providers "can help the NHS provide even better care and value for money for patients, we should use them. If they can't, we shouldn't".
But the decision to use the private sector would increasingly become a local one, she said. Under questioning, she said: "We are not planning any new central procurements." She "saw no need" for a third wave of independent treatment centres.
Invitations to tender are already out for the private sector to supply under-doctored areas, and to support or supply the commissioning of care.
Beyond that there could, she indicated, be situations where the centre could help with contract expertise and frameworks for negotiations on which primary care trusts and others could call.
"But in future I think the share [of NHS care] that a particular provider will get will depend on local needs and the decisions of patients and commissioners."
The declaration that the government would set no limit to independent sector involvement in the health service angered the health unions.
James Johnson, the chairman of council for the British Medical Association, said the doctors' organisation was "very concerned about the potential open-door policy to the private sector".
Ms Hewitt, however, stressed that the NHS would not become "only" a commissioner, or a "kind of glorified insurance system buying services from the private sector". It would always remain a provider of care "because of the quality and commitment of its staff, in and outside hospitals".
The majority of hospitals and community services would remain publicly owned but their ownership would change to foundation trust status, owned not by the government but by the public and run by their staff.
-----Original Message-----
From: The Health Equity Network (HEN) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of alex scott-samuel
Sent: 26 July 2007 12:37
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Subject: Alan Johnson to limit private sector in the NHS
Alan Johnson to limit private sector in the NHS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/26/nhosi226.xml
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Alan Johnson, the new Health Secretary, laid out his plans for the NHS yesterday, promising that the involvement of the private sector would be limited.
In a clear break with the Blair years, Mr Johnson announced there would not be an expansion of contracts with the private sector to provide operations for NHS patients after those in the pipeline had been approved.
Gordon Brown is understood to want to limit competition between the NHS and the private sector in what some have seen as the privatisation of the health service.
Mr Johnson was making his first appearance before the Commons health select committee, whose members questioned him about the future direction of the health service.
"I don't believe there is the need for another independent sector treatment centre [ISTC] procurement and there won't be a third wave," he said.
"We will instead move towards greater local determination."
Mr Johnson said one new contract was being signed today with Capio for 11,000 orthopaedic and general surgery operations a year in Cumbria and Lancashire. A few others may follow in the coming months to add to the
21 centres in operation.
A contract for diagnostic tests with Atos Origins in the North West and South West of England was being terminated. It is understood there were problems with patient information and delays in reporting results. ISTCs have been controversial because the NHS has to pay for the number of operations in the contracts even if they are not carried out.
Earlier this month The Daily Telegraph revealed that about £1 million had been paid by Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust to a private health care company for operations on NHS patients that had not taken place.
Dr Jonathan Fielden, the chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants committee, said: "The BMA is pleased that the Government has decided not to go ahead with a further wave of the ISTC programme.
"In many areas, the need for an ISTC to provide extra capacity has been poorly assessed and contracts, paid-for regardless of activity, are often under-utilised.
"The independent sector should only be used when the NHS cannot provide the service locally and when it is truly value for money."
Andrew Lansley, the Conservative shadow health secretary, said:
"This
hails a clear break from Blair's public service reforms and adds to the confusion over the future direction of the NHS.
"Independent sector provision in the NHS is not the problem, rather it is Labour's inability to negotiate value-for-money contracts and create a level playing field for NHS providers."
Mr Johnson promised that there would be no more major restructuring in the NHS but said there would be no reversal of the decision to give nurses and midwives a pay award in stages, further angering unions as they draw up plans for industrial action.
Alex Nunns
Information Officer
Keep Our NHS Public
07763607528
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