NHS Privatisation

The NHS is under attack from all sides as the Government has used the cover of the pandemic to force through privatisation plans, with the controversial White Paper released on February 11th, the roll out of ‘Integrated Care Systems’ through the ‘Health and Care Bill’, the sell-off GP services, and continuing cronyism – all carried out at a time of increased danger brought about by the Trade Bill, and in the context of cuts, closures and the ongoing sale of NHS land and buildings. It is a complex picture but, as far as the Government is concerned, with one direction of travel.

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September 2025 – Excellent briefing paper published by national KONP

Briefing paper published “Privatisation of the NHS – What it looks like and the impact it has”.

Highly recommended – please circulate. The link to the paper is here:

Click to access KONP-Briefing-NHS-Privatisation-18-Sept-2025-Web-Email.pdf

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Click here to see the extent of privatisation and outsourcing in the health service in your area

In the recent (2022) Survation poll, there is overwhelming support for public ownership in the “red wall” constituencies (click here for the article in the Mirror

More recently, the Savanta poll, conducted for left Foot Forward, shows mass support for public ownership and little confidence in the private sector – click here for the article in LFF (8th November 2023)

And the YouGov 2024 Poll shows a significant increase to 87% in favour of a publicly owned NHS

Sad to post the following.

2014: This was the situation around 10 years ago. The NHS was the best healthcare system in the world, ranked number 1 by the Commonwealth

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror-wall-2014-update-how-us-health-care-system

2021: A decade of Tory underfunding and criminal grade neglect has delivered the crisis we’re in. The Commonwealth Fund’s Mirror, Mirror report – which analyses how healthcare in the US compares with services in other rich countries – has downgraded the NHS from top spot to fourth position in its global rankings, citing increased patient delays post-covid and lack of investment as the main reasons for the change….political decisions which pave the way for increased privatisation.

The NHS achieved top place in the Washington-based thinktank’s two previous reports, but now ranks behind Norway, the Netherlands and Australia.

See The Lowdown (10th August 2021) NHS loses top spot in international rankings

The Guardian (4th August 2021) NHS drops from first to fourth among rich countries’ healthcare systems

2024 Data: Commonwealth Fund analysis.

Source: David Blumenthal et al., Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System — Comparing Performance in 10 Nations (Commonwealth Fund, Sept. 2024). https://doi.org/10.26099/ta0g-zp66

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/sep/mirror-mirror-2024

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and also…..

Comparison of healthcare systems; efficiency and effectiveness

From: Mark E Thomas Amending the Health and Care Bill (September 28th 2021)

NHS patients are being provided with harmful, unnecessary surgery in the private sector. In addition to the harm caused to patients, billing the NHS for unnecessary surgery is fraud. Excellent research by Shaun Lintern, Sunday Times (10th September 2023) You can pay for private healthcare — but can you trust it?

To find out more about privatisation, please click the following pages:

**For the cost of private treatments, click here**

**For NHS privatisation associated with Covid 19 and cronyism, click here**

**For The Peoples Covid Inquiry, click here**

**For the Policing Bill 2021, and the clampdown on protest about NHS privatisation, click here**

**For Questions to NE Councils re NHS privatisation, click here**

**For info re privatisation in North Tyneside Primary Care (“Livi”), click here**

**For the KONPNE response to North Tyneside CCGs evaluation of “Livi”, click here**

**For info re privatisation in other Primary Care locations, click here**

**For privatisation in A&E at York, click here**

**For the privatisation of Urgent Care throughout the North East, click here**

**For the privatisation of health interventions and treatments, click here**

For cuts to dentistry. click here

**For privatisation associated with the Health and Care Bill and Integrated Care Systems, click here**

**For privatisation through wholly-owned subsidiary companies, click here**

**For sale of NHS land and buildings, click here**

**For info re the KONPNE powerpoint presentation, click here**

**For NHS privatisation associated with the 2020 Trade Bill, click here**

plus

scroll down this page for:

1: Articles

2: Video and audio

3: Books

4: When We Own It – A model for public ownership in the 21st century

5: NHS Bill

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some excellent news….

4th March 2022: KONPNE sends huge congratulations to the striking workers at Barts Hospital who have now won their long fight to be brought back in house. Hundreds of cleaners, porters, security guards and domestic staff are to benefit from NHS pay, terms and conditions – these staff will be transferred across to join the existing Barts Health staff as NHS employees under the Agenda for Change (AfC) conditions – click here for info.

Outsourced workers at St George’s Hospital have also won sick pay alongside their NHS colleagues after prolonged pressure from the GMB union too.

Never give up the fight

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1:

Articles

> We Own It (29th April 2025) New Study Confirms: NHS outsourcing fuels inequality and longer waits

> Int Jn Soc Det Health (27th April 2025) Outsourcing National Health Service Surgery to the Private Sector: Waiting Time Inequality and the Making of a Two-Tier System for Hip and Knee Replacement in England

> Guardian (18th April 2024) Private health insurance market grows by £385m in a year amid NHS crisis

> Express (16th March 2024) Alarm as new figures show soaring rate of people shunning NHS for private healthcare

> Guardian (8th March 2024) Private hospitals ‘cannibalising’ NHS in England by doing 10% of elective operations

> John Puntis, Co-Chair, KONP (12th January 2024) In Defence of the NHS

> Economics Obsrvatory (30th November 2023) How does the outsourcing of health and social care affect service quality?

> CHPI (21st August 2023) PAYING FOR HEALTHCARE ON THE “NEVER, NEVER” IN THE UK – HOW HAS IT COME TO THIS?

> The Observer (6th August 2023) Buy now, pay later medical loans on rise as desperate patients go private amid NHS backlogs

> Left Foot Forward (7th July 2023) Rampant corporate power is destroying our democracy

> The Guardian (2nd July 2023) Seven in 10 people believe charges for NHS care are on the way

> Socialist Health Association (9th June 2023) The NHS – a shining jewel of social solidarity

> The Guardian (11th June 2023) The signs are too stark to ignore’: seven reasons the NHS is in crisis

> The Guardian (24th May 2023) Record rise in people using private healthcare amid NHS frustration

> The Guardian (17th April 2023) One in eight Britons pay for private health services, survey shows

> The Observer (12th February 2023) NHS consultants run private firms charging to cut waiting lists at their own hospitals

> The Guardian (25th January 2023) Keir Starmer’s private prescription for the NHS is dangerous

> The Guardian (23rd January 2023) Mark my words: this will be the end of the NHS if the Tories have their way

> openDemocracy (19th January 2023) Revealed: Taskforce to tackle NHS backlog is stuffed with private health CEOs

> The Guardian (7th January 2023) Revealed: NHS trusts tell patients they can go private and jump hospital queues

> Open Democracy (4th January 2023) How austerity caused the NHS crisis

> The Guardian (12th December 2022) Private hospitals coming to the NHS’s rescue? Labour should know better

> Tribune (23rd November 2022) NHS Red Lines Are Already Being Crossed

> The Guardian (11th September 2022) Millions of UK patients forced to go private amid record NHS waiting lists

> The Lowdown (9th August 2022) Uncertain future for Babylon Health in the UK

> LSE British Politics and Policy (3rd August 2022) Areas of England with increased outsourcing of NHS services have more deaths of people with treatable conditions

> The Lancet (July 2022) Outsourcing health-care services to the private sector and treatable mortality rates in England, 2013–20: an observational study of NHS privatisation

> Peter Roderick and Allyson Pollock, International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services (25th July 2022) Dismantling the National Health Service in England

> BBC News (22nd July 2022) NHS waits force patients to pay for private ops

> Tribune (1st July 2022) The Latest Tory Privatisation of Our NHS

> OpenDemocracy (29th June 2022) NHS privatisation linked to 557 ‘treatable’ deaths in five years

> The Mirror (29th June 2022) ‘Treatable deaths’ rise under privatised NHS services, study finds

> The Guardian (29th June 2022) NHS privatisation drive linked to rise in avoidable deaths, study suggests

> Keep Our NHS Public (25th June 2022) ITV ‘Bodies of evidence: the butcher surgeon’

> The Economic Times (4th May 2022) The Latest Privatisation Of The NHS By The Backdoor

> The Guardian (20th April 2022) NHS waiting lists drive more Britons to pay for medical treatment

> Financial Times (10th April 2022) Pursuit of profit bodes ill for US healthcare

> BBC News (6th April 2022) Harwell VMIC: New vaccine centre sold to company

> National KONP (31st March 2022) The NHS isn’t failing; it’s being failed: A doctor’s take on the latest NHS public satisfaction survey

> The Lowdown (30th March 2022) Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre under privatisation threat

> Guardian (30th March 2022) There has been a huge drop in NHS satisfaction levels – but don’t let No 10 blame Covid

> Union News (3rd March 2022) Win! St Bart’s NHS workers brought back in-house after Unite campaign

> National KONP (10th March 2022) This rushed-through Health and Care Bill is a threat to a truly universal NHS

> The Mirror (8th March 2022) NHS app will be new ‘front door’ to health service in huge Tory shake-up

> Barts Health NHS Trust (3rd March 2022) Barts Health cleaners, porters, security guards and domestic staff to be brought in-house

> The Guardian (2nd March 2022) Private healthcare boom adds to fears of two-tier system in UK

> The Lowdown (21st February 2022) Centene’s investment shake-up could mean NHS u-turn

> The Lowdown (21st February 2022) Trust opens new surgery facility to avoid outsourcing care to private hospitals

> The Lowdown (18th February 2022) Plan to tackle NHS queues lacks funding for staff, but favours private sector

> GMB (26th January 2022) GMB London Ambulance Mitie members to go back in-house

> The Lowdown (19th January 2022) Past mistakes repeated in academy-style hospitals proposal

> The Guardian (22nd January 2022) The Guardian view on NHS privatisation: the wrong treatment

> Mail Online (18th January 2022) Sajid Javid plans ‘academy school’ style NHS revolution with successful hospitals given more freedom and failing ones left facing takeover in bid to reduce waiting times

> Health Service Journal (17th January 2022) Care of those with personality disorders has been privatised

> Jacobin (16th January 2022) The Private Sector Will Destroy the NHS, Not Save It

> The Guardian (19th December 2021) A dangerous lie is stalking the NHS: that it is no longer fit for purpose

> New Statesman (13th December 2021) Is the Conservative government privatising the NHS by stealth?

> Business Leader (1st December 2021) Twenty20 Capital acquires Virgin Care and rebrands to HCRG Care

> OpenDemocracy (25th November 2021) Website for booking NHS appointments offers mostly private healthcare

> OpenDemocracy (15th November 2021) Three-quarters of UK public worried more NHS privatisation will damage care

> The Good Law Project (3rd November 2021) EXCLUSIVE: Private hospitals were paid over £1.5 billion during the pandemic

> The New Statesman (30th October 2021) Why we must fight to save the NHS from privatisation

> The Lowdown (29th October 2021) A history of privatisation part 7: A flurry of contracts and “reforms”

> The Lowdown (20th October 2021) Invest in publicly run services to secure health and social care

> The Guardian (7th October 2021) Private hospitals treated just eight Covid patients a day during pandemic – report

> FierceHealthcare (30th September 2021) Centene to pay more than $71M to settle Medicaid overpayment cases in Illinois, Arkansas

> 99% Organisation (September 28th 2021) Amending the Health and Care Bill

> Open letter from “We Own It” (23rd September 2021) An open letter to Sir Keir Starmer on public ownership

> The Guardian (20th September 2021) Britain’s public sector is paying the price for the government’s consultancy habit

> Byline Times (17th August 2021) THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF THE NHS: What Does ‘Privatisation’ of Health Services Really Mean?

> The Guardian (10th August 2021) Predatory financial tactics are putting the very survival of the UK care system at risk

> The Commonwealth Fund (4th August 2021) Mirror, Mirror 2021: Reflecting Poorly: Health Care in the U.S. Compared to Other High-Income Countries

> MSN News (28th July 2021) England is sleepwalking towards a two-tier health system

> 999CallfortheNHS (22nd July 2021) Follow the money…hospital cuts plan, Vote Leave, UK-US trade deal with NHS on the table

> The Guardian (17th July 2021) We got the bill for having a baby – $37,000. Welcome to life in America

> 999 Call for the NHS (16th July 2021) US Health Insurance Provider in prime position to take over new NHS Integrated Care Systems

> The Lowdown (9th July 2021) £10bn NHS community diagnostics contracts attracts firms

> The Lowdown (9th July 2021) Ramsay bid to become largest UK private health supplier

> British Medical Journal (8th July 2021) Covid-19: Billions spent on private contracts should have gone to public services, says people’s inquiry

> The Guardian (30th June 2021) Serco expects 50% jump in profits on back of Covid contracts

> The Lowdown (14th June 2021) History of NHS privatisation (part 6) : NHS money commissions new private hospitals

> The Lowdown (28th May 2021) Virgin given seat on ICS Board

> The Lowdown (28th May 2021) NHS funds siphoned off as beds stand empty

> NHS New Deal (video) (25th May 2021) Big Pharma Monopolies and Patient Healthcare

> The Lowdown (17th May 2021) The History of Privatisation – Part 5

> The Lowdown (4th May 2021) London NHS hospital next to expand private patients

> The Guardian (3rd May 2021) Non-NHS healthcare providers given £96bn in a decade, says Labour

> The Guardian (3rd May 2021) The NHS is being privatised by stealth under the cover of a pandemic

> “We Own It” video (18th April 2021) One simple solution to cronyism in our NHS

> The Guardian (18th April 2021) NHS England chair faces demands to explain role in Greensill lobbying

> Open Democracy (17th April 2021) What Cameron and the Greensill app tells us about NHS digital privatisation

> The Guardian (13th April 2021) Tories accused of corruption and NHS privatisation by former chief scientist

> BBC News (16th April 2021) Matt Hancock and sister own shares in NHS contract firm

> In These Times (30th March 2021) The UK’s Vaccine Rollout Is the Latest Reminder We Need Universal Healthcare

> The Lowdown (21st February 2021) Under cover of Covid…

> The Mirror (1st April 2021) Former private health firm chief ‘given job’ as No10 advisor

> OpenDemocracy (30th March 2021) We’ve won our lawsuit over Matt Hancock’s £23m NHS data deal with Palantir

> Keep Our NHS Public (19th March 2021) But aren’t all GPs private anyway?

> The Lowdown (24th February 2021) Privatisation: Key Facts

> The Lowdown (21st February 2021) A History of NHS Privatisation (Part 3)

> The Lowdown (19th February 2021) Why does NHS privatisation matter?

**> John Furse, London Review of Books (November 2019) The NHS Dismantled click here**

> GP Online (18th February 2021) US company’s subsidiary to hold nearly 1% of GP contracts in England

> The Guardian (16th February 2021) My partner is pregnant – and the cost of giving birth in the US is stressing me out

> The Guardian (8th February 2021) NHS dental patients ‘told to go private’ as watchdog warns of crisis

> The Lowdown (5th February 2021) Private health and privatisation cost lives

> The Lowdown (4th February 2021) US company in takeover of network of GP practices

> Tribune (18th January 2021) Amazon Is Coming for Our Healthcare

> CK 999 Call for the NHS (20th January 2021) Routine NHS funding withdrawn from another 31 diagnostic tests, treatments and operations

> We Own It (May 2019) When We Own It – a model for public ownership in the 21st century

> Public Matters (8th October 2019) How much of the NHS in England has already been privatised?

> The Lowdown (6th January 2021) Private hospital group backs out of Covid deal to treat NHS patients

> Caroline Molloy, OpenDemocracy (19th December 2020) The terrifying truth about those deciding the future of the NHS

> CK 999 Call for the NHS (14th December 2020) US companies poised to run NHS following proposed legislation

> The Lowdown (8th December 2020): Vanishing front line beds pose threat to NHS future

> The Lowdown (22nd November 2020): The beginning of the end of Subcos that affect low paid NHS staff?

> The Guardian (30th October 2020): ‘Profit over death’: millions of American diabetics struggle to afford insulin

> NHS Support Federation (October 2020): A snapshot of NHS outsourcing failures

> Byline Times (31st March 2020) Behind Closed Doors Johnson and his Cabinet Do Not Applaud the NHS – They Ideologically Oppose It

> Information from “We Own It” (2020) is here: https://weownit.org.uk/public-ownership/nhs

> Recent article from “The Lowdown” (2020): https://lowdownnhs.info/private-providers/revealed-nhs-commissioners-high-spend-on-non-nhs-care-providers

> Staff morale / staff shortages in the NE (19th Nov 2019): True picture of the NHS in the North East – bosses say thousands of vacancies putting patients at risk

> CNBC (11th February 2019) This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy

> The “Open Democracy” (September 2017) article by Professor Allyson Pollock on the need to legislate to reinstate the NHS is here.

> National report from The Centre for Health and the Public Interest; this report was published in April 2015, but still provides some important information and pointers for future action The Contracting NHS: Can the NHS Handle the Outsourcing of Clinical Services?

>> Article on the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (June 2013) Tritter and Koivusalo – Undermining patient and public engagement and limiting its impact – the consequences of the HSC Act 2012 on collective patient and public involvement

>> Guardian article on Health and Social Care Act 2012 (March 2013) Youssef El-Gingihy – Health Act means the death of the NHS as we know it

Privatisation in the North East

> Privatisation in 111, On Call and Urgent Care; Northern Doctors -> Vocare -> Totally www.vocare.org.uk/docs/Vocare%20RNS%20announcement.pdf

http://999callfornhs.org.uk/nhs-detectives-2018/4593771080

and click here for our webpage Privatisation of Urgent Care

> Privatisation in Primary Care in North Tyneside

click here for an update regarding the Swedish company “Livi” in North Tyneside

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2:

Video and audio

> The Truth about NHS Privatisation – 2 minute video from Just Treatment (March 2022)

> An excellent 10 minute film from “Your NHS Needs You” is here (January 2022)

> British people guess how much health care costs in the US – a video by Waleed Shahid

> Privatising the NHS – A View from the Top (Public Matters, December 2020)

> Hear Stephen Fry in “Boris and Trumps Deadliest Trick” (July 2019)

Are Johnson and Trump trying to privatise the NHS? Which healthcare system is most likely to save you? Killer facts are hidden by carefully constructed illusions…..click here

> “The dismantling of our NHS and why we need an NHS Bill to reinstate it“ (Newcastle University, October 2017)

Recorded at Newcastle University in October 2017, Professor Pollock outlines the ins and outs of health policy over the past twenty years, culminating in the Accountable Care Systems of today – an American import which is clearly orientated to a private health takeover. Our NHS was the model for the rest of the world in 1948 – low cost, efficient and universal – and many European countries followed our health care model. We now need to reinstate it to public ownership. Listen to the audio recording here.

> “Post-election reflections on the fate of the NHS in England and health and social care services in the North East“ (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, July 2017)

Professor Allyson Pollock, in this Public Lecture and Q&A session, reviews past and current developments in health provision and provides insight into ways forward for all who support and care for the NHS. Watch the video here.

> “Privatisation of the NHS“ (April 2014)

Watch this TED talk on the Privatisation of the NHS by Professor Allyson Pollock (18 minutes)

**> United Voices (August 2020)**

Personal stories of one group of cleaners, caterers and porters from St Mary’s Hospital in London – this is an inspiring story of resistance. This 20 min film charts their first strike through to an influential victory that benefits outsourced workers across five other hospitals. Click here

> See this short video Privatising the NHS from We Own It (2020)

3:

Books

Click here for information

Also – read the excellent “We Own It” report When We Own It – a model for public ownership in the 21st Century

(plus a two page summary is here )

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4:

WHEN WE OWN IT – A model for public ownership in the 21st century

CLICK HERE

to link to the blueprint (May 2019) from the campaign group “We Own It”

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5:

THE NHS BILL

The NHS in England is being dismantled and only a change to the law can stop the dama

Changes in the law (esp Health and Social Care Act 2012) have brought about the dismantling of the NHS over recent years – and only a change in the law can re-establish it as a publicly owned and publicly provided National Health Service, which includes the governments duty to provide the key NHS services. Legislation is needed to re-establish these principles of the NHS.

The NHS Bill has been presented to Parliament on a number of occasions, but it has not received the necessary support for enactment.

Details of the most recent Bill are here: http://www.nhsbillnow.org/eleanor-smiths-nhs-bill-published-in-full/

As part of the KONPNE anti-privatisation exhibition in the summer of 2018, we invited all 22 North East MPs to send us a one-liner statement about where they stood regarding the NHS Bill ….some positive responses, some surprising responses (reading between the lines) and (sadly / interestingly) no responses from some….even though they are our elected representatives….

Click konpne st thomas exhibition mp quotes june 2018 to find out what your MP did (or didn’t) say at that time, and whether s/he had signed up…..We have added the line “Supporter of the NHS Reinstatement Bill” to those 10 MPs who have already signed up to the Bill (according to the www.nhsbillnow.org website)

More information? Read more about the past content of the NHS Bill here and check out the NHS Bill website, facebook and twitter now