Jacky Davis - NHS for Sale: Myths, Lies & Deception

Tamasin Cave, Jacky Davis, Paul Evans, John Lister,

Martin McKee, Harry Smith, David Wrigley, 2015

irst published in 2015 by

The Merlin Press Ltd

99b Wallis Road

London

E9 5LN

www.merlinpress.co.uk

ISBN. 978-0-85036-627-3

eISBN. 978-0-85036-716-4

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Index

For much helpful and generous advice, our thanks go to Anna Athow, Prof. Colin Crouch, Prof. Colin Leys and Prof. Ray Tallis; we thank Peter Phillips and Glenda Pattenden for the cover concept and design, and tender particular thanks to Harry Smith for the foreword, Prof. Martin McKee for the introduction, and Tamasin Cave and Paul Evans for their contributions on the health lobbying industry and on NHS vital statistics under the coalition.

To the memory of Aneurin Bevan and to the frontline NHS staff who do battle for patients every day

5YFV Five Year Forward View, http://www.england.nhs.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf.

A&E Accident & Emergency.

AQP Any Qualified Provider.

BMA British Medical Association, http://bma.org.uk/.

BMJBritish Medical Journal, http://www.bmj.com/.

BUPA British United Provident Association, http://www.bupa.co.uk/.

CCG Clinical Commissioning Groups, (Commissioners), http://www.england.nhs.uk. http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Clinical-Commissioning-Group/LocationSearch/1.

CCP Co-operation and Competition Panel (Monitor): https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/co-operation-and-competition-clinical-reference-group. https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/co-operation-and-competition-economics-reference-group.

CHC Community Health Councils, abolished in England in 2003; they continue to work in Wales, http://www.wales.nhs.uk sitesplus/899/home.

CHPI Centre for Health and the Public Interest, http://chpi.org.uk/.

Clause 119 (HSC Bill) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26531807.

Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/css/.

CSIG Commissioning Support Industry Group private interests: e.g. UnitedHealth.

CQC Care Quality Commission, http://www.cqc.org.uk/.

DHA District Health Authority no longer exists in England.

DoH Department of Health, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health.

ED Emergency Department.

FoI Freedom of Information (Act), http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents.

FT Foundation Trust, http://www.nhsproviders.org/home/.

GMC General Medical Council, http://www.gmc-uk.org/.

Healthwatch http://www.healthwatch.co.uk/find-local-healthwatch.

HSCIC Health and Social Care Information Centre, http://www.hscic.gov.uk/.

HSC Health and Social Care Bill or Act 2012, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/contents.

HSJHealth Service Journal, http://www.hsj.co.uk.

HWBs Health & Wellbeing Board (directory), http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/health-and-wellbeing-boards/hwb-map.

IRP Independent Reconfiguration Panel, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/independent-reconfiguration-panel.

ISTC Independent Sector Treatment Centre.

ITU Intensive Therapy/Treatment Unit.

LATs Local area teams, http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/Pages/AreaTeamListing.aspx.

Monitor https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/about-monitor-an-introduction-to-our-role.

MHRA Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, http://www.mhra.gov.uk.

NAO National Audit Office, http://www.nao.org.uk/.

NHSCC NHS Clinical Commissioners, http://www.nhscc.org/.

NHS Confederation http://www.nhsconfed.org/.

NHSE NHS England, http://www.england.nhs.uk.

NHS Support Federation http://www.nhscampaign.org/.

NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, http://www.nice.org.uk/

Nuffield Trust http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/.

OOH Out of Hours.

PCTs Primary Care Trusts, now replaced by Clinical Commissioning Group.

PFI Private Finance Initiative.

PPI Private Patient Income.

RCN Royal College of Nurses, http://www.rcn.org.uk.

RCGP Royal College of General Practitioners, http://www.rcgp.org.uk.

Section 75 Regulations http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/section/75/enacted.

SHA Strategic health authorities, abolished in 2013.

SPT Strategic Project Team, http://www.thestrategicprojectsteam.co.uk.

TDA Trust Development Authority, http://www.ntda.nhs.uk/.

TSA Trust Special Advisor, Trust Special Administrator.

TTIP Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

TUPE Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment).

UCC Urgent Care Centre.

UH UnitedHealthcare, http://www.uhc.com/.

UNISON Public service trade union, http://www.unison.org.uk.

UNITE Britains biggest union with 1.42 million in every type of workplace. http://www.unitetheunion.org/.

WHO World Health Organisation.

An announcement has been made that hundreds of government websites will be moving to the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk.

HARRY SMITH

Over ninety years have passed since I was born in the barbarous year of 1923 in the coalmining community of Barnsley. As the light fades on my life, I am drawn towards the narrow cobbled streets of my early life that were fraught with poverty and sickness. Back then existence was a hard scrabble battle for many Britons because we lived in a primitive era when there was no NHS and good health care was a privilege that only the rich could afford.

In the winter of my years, I dont reflect upon my boyhood with nostalgia. Its impossible since I learned too early in my days that life for those who cant access a doctor or medicine due to financial circumstances can be a brief and sad affair. You see, in 1926 when I was a small lad my sister Marion contracted TB and died in a workhouse infirmary because my dad, who had worked as a miner since the age of twelve, was too poor to provide medical care for his daughter on a working-class salary.

Tragically during my childhood in the early twentieth century thousands met their end like Marion. I can even remember as a boy hearing the piercing cries from open windows on our street of people dying from cancer who didnt have the dosh to buy morphine to ease their passage from life. To this day, I am haunted by the inhuman manner in which my sisters illness was treated or how the society of my youth believed that only the well-to-do or well-connected deserved medical care.