This is the way the NHS ends. Not with a bang ...

[non sociopath skin]

.... but a whimper.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/10/private-firm-run-nhs-hospital

The Skin

[oldironside]

1. Treason.

Against the will of the people. Against the best interests of the people. Done purely to make their rich friends richer. Landsley and Cameron should be dragged to Tyburn on hurdles.

[LeftishBrit]

2. And this is BEFORE the passage of the 'NHS Selloff oops I mean Reform' Bill comes into effect

They just do whatever suits them, whatever anyone else says or does.

Lansley is, in my view, fundamentally corrupt; his links with the health insurance industry are IMO a far worse scandal than the expenses abuses.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. A good blog pointing out how Southern Cross shows the dangers of such private ownership

Cut to the Guardian, where three days ago Circle’s CEO, ex-Goldman Sachs banker Ali Parsa set out his view that the NHS is “an unsustainable industry” that costs too much to run.
...
It gets even more complex when you realise the Foster-designed hospital in Bath, which Cavendish so praised, is leased from Health Properties (Bath), a company on whose board Lehman Brothers have 50 per cent representation. That’s the same Lehman Brothers that went into administration in 2008. Health Properties (Bath), the hospital’s landlord, is also part-owned by the Jersey arm of Circle and by Health Estates Fund.

“The investors in this fund are un-connected wealthy individuals who have chosen to invest their money in the fabric of UK hospitals,” says Circle.

All this comes at a time when Britain’s largest care home operator, Southern Cross, is struggling to survive. It’s a debacle that has arguably come about because private equity and other funds chose to invest in the fabric of UK residential care homes.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/11/10/should-we-be-wary-of-private-companies%E2%80%99-involvement-in-healthcare/

Except that whole hospitals will have to be declared Too Important To Fail, so when the bankers have driven it into bankruptcy through some new wheeze, they'll get bailed out. At the worst, their offshore tax-avoidance companies will be shut down, and they'll have to pay the fee to set up new ones, and move on to the next victim investment opportunity in UK hospitals.

Also, the NHS is widely recognised as the cheapest, and best value, health system amongst its peers. Anyone saying it's 'unsustainable' and 'costs too much to run' is just lying.

[MichaelMcGuire]

9. NHS

//the NHS is “an unsustainable industry” that costs too much to run//

Its party politics that's shaping their (Tory) policy on the NHS. North of the border we've had no need to move in that direction of privatisation, and there is no difference to our health outcomes etc from England. It's not for me to dictate how best to run the NHS Trusts in England, nor to mirror the that off the NHS Boards in Scotland but to say only privatisation is the only way is quite clearly nonsense.

[SwissTony]

4. Don't worry folks, we've got the right people in place...not

Andrew Lansley's NHS is all about private sector hype

Circle has little know-how on running a hospital the size of Hinchingbrooke, but that doesn't seem to bother the government

The government's decision to sign a 10-year contract worth £1bn for an untested private company to manage the heavily indebted Hinchingbrooke hospital really is the triumph of hype over experience.

The hype has come thick and fast from Circle Healthcare's smooth-talking boss, former Goldman Sachs banker Ali Parsadoust (known as Ali Parsa), who gives the impression that Circle is some kind of altruistic workers' co-operative, while in fact it is controlled by private equity and hedge funds. Far from handing control to the workers, Circle takes a negative view of trade unions and will have to resort to old-fashioned cuts in the workforce if it is to generate the "efficiency savings" it needs to put the hospital into surplus.

More hype has come from the architect of the contract, NHS East of England's director of strategy Dr Stephen Dunn, an enthusiastic advocate of private sector provision (which he denies is privatisation), whose unstinting efforts to secure this deal won him an award this year from HealthInvestor magazine.

But there is little in Circle's record to justify Dunn's belief that the company has the expertise to take on a project on the scale of Hinchingbrooke. The company has yet to make a success even of running its two tiny (30-bed) private hospitals, which were extravagantly expensive to build, and has run up six years of losses so far: hardly a good base to take on the bigger challenge of managing of a debt-ridden NHS general hospital 10 times the size and many more times more complex.

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/11/andrew-lansley-nhs-private-sector-circle>

[non sociopath skin]

5. Hey, OF COURSE they can run a hospital ... they're PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, right?

ENTREPRENEURS can make a success of ANYTHING! Ask Clive Sinclair. Ask the former board of Enron. Ask Herman Cain.

Look at the great job they've done of running British Rail. And British Gas. And BT. And British Coal. Now wouldn't you want your gran to get that level of organisational competence and know-how after her stroke?

I bet the good folks of Oxfordshire can't wait to get seriously ill so that they can check out this great new opportunity.

The Thatcherites are back. REJOICE!

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

6. Sadly, too true

BTW this is in Cambridgeshire - tho' I'm sure dear leader Cameron can't wait to have such models of excellence right on his (and my) doorstep in Oxfordshire too.

[non sociopath skin]

7. Apologies, LB. I take ownership of my sloppy research.

But the principle remains.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

8. Typical Tory way of doing things...

Run hospital into ground then pretend they are doing everyone a favour by privatising, even thought the only people who will benefit from this will be the bosses of Circle Healthcare.

[dipsydoodle]

10. I thought the closure of this hospital was first discussed 5 years ago

:shrug: