Independent sector treatment centres: evidence so far

doi:10.1136/bmj.39470.505556.80

BMJ 2008;336:421-424 (23 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39470.505556.80

Analysis

Independent sector treatment centres: evidence so far

Allyson M Pollock, professor of international public health policy, Sylvia Godden, senior research fellow

¹ Centre for International Public Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

Correspondence to: A M Pollock allyson.pollock@ed.ac.uk

The government plans to continue using NHS funds to contractwith commercial healthcare providers in the second phase ofthe independent sector treatment centre programme, but AllysonM Pollock and Sylvia Godden argue that no good evidence is availableto support this policy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Using NHS funds to deliver NHS clinical servicesvia the private sector lacks evidence and has not been evaluated

Datato support government claims that independent sector treatmentcentres offer high productivity, high quality health care, orvalue for money are lacking

Such centres are meant to provideextra capacity and staff, but 23 000 NHS beds in England haveclosed and many NHS clinical staff have transferred to the privatesector since their introduction

Patients’, lawyers’,and professional bodies’ concerns over quality and safetyare being ignored by government

The policy of the Department of Health in England is to useNHS funds to contract with for-profit multinational healthcarecorporations to deliver clinical services. One controversialaspect of this policy is the independent sector treatment centreprogramme, which over the course of two phases (waves) willprovide elective surgery and other services at a total costof over £5bn . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

Pollock, A. M, Kirkwood, G. (2009). Independent sector treatment centres: learning from a Scottish case study. BMJ 338: b1421-b1421 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Some evidence of quality of care exists: Nick Black
bmj.com, 22 Feb 2008 [Full text]
Scottish Regional Treatment Centre, Stracathro Hospital, Angus: John R Evans, et al.
bmj.com, 22 Feb 2008 [Full text]
When will we be shown the whole picture?: Hendrik J Beerstecher
bmj.com, 23 Feb 2008 [Full text]
Confuse and Conceal: Wendy D Savage
bmj.com, 3 Mar 2008 [Full text]
Further still than ISTCs: Andrew N Bamji
bmj.com, 4 Mar 2008 [Full text]