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
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.
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
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
> John Puntis, Co-Chair, KONP (12th January 2024) In Defence of the NHS
> 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
> John Furse, London Review of Books (November 2019) The NHS Dismantled click here
> 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?
Privatisation in the North East
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
> An excellent 10 minute film from “Your NHS Needs You” is here (January 2022)
> 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
(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
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.
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
konpnortheast.com 