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Helen Salisbury is right to despair at the recent inept comments by Wes Streeting castigating GPs while indicating no clear plan to rebuild the NHS, now faced with the worst staffing crisis in its history (1). Although lack of knowledge and poor advice may explain his position, other concerns have surfaced around the taking of funds from a source with large interests in a US healthcare corporation (2). Claiming that the NHS should ask the private sector to come to its rescue (3) was strongly contested by David Rowland from the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (4). Rowland pointed out the parasitic and risky nature of independent hospitals, with doctors trained by the NHS (effectively a subsidy to them of £8 bn), poor safety record, lack of ICU facilities, frequent transfer of patients back to the NHS (6,600 in one year, costing the NHS around £80m) and poor governance arrangements. Rowland’s article effectively demolished the portrayal of the private sector as some kind of extra untapped resource that only ideologically mistaken left wingers could object to using (5).
The current crisis could well justify utilising (some would say requisitioning) any available capacity in the private sector as long as this was a temporary measure while rebuilding the NHS to a level which would then mean private providers became largely irrelevant. Labour’s commitment to increasing staff numbers is welcome, but what we also need to hear is that it will be prioritising primary care, public health and tackling the social determinants of health as part of a coherent strategy. As Abbasi points out (6), you won't ease the pressure on hospitals or improve baseline population health and narrow inequalities unless this is embraced. Most importantly, it will definitely require significant additional long term funding to bring us up nearer to European levels of spending (7).
Re: Helen Salisbury: Labour’s Wes Streeting disappoints
Dear Editor,
Helen Salisbury is right to despair at the recent inept comments by Wes Streeting castigating GPs while indicating no clear plan to rebuild the NHS, now faced with the worst staffing crisis in its history (1). Although lack of knowledge and poor advice may explain his position, other concerns have surfaced around the taking of funds from a source with large interests in a US healthcare corporation (2). Claiming that the NHS should ask the private sector to come to its rescue (3) was strongly contested by David Rowland from the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (4). Rowland pointed out the parasitic and risky nature of independent hospitals, with doctors trained by the NHS (effectively a subsidy to them of £8 bn), poor safety record, lack of ICU facilities, frequent transfer of patients back to the NHS (6,600 in one year, costing the NHS around £80m) and poor governance arrangements. Rowland’s article effectively demolished the portrayal of the private sector as some kind of extra untapped resource that only ideologically mistaken left wingers could object to using (5).
The current crisis could well justify utilising (some would say requisitioning) any available capacity in the private sector as long as this was a temporary measure while rebuilding the NHS to a level which would then mean private providers became largely irrelevant. Labour’s commitment to increasing staff numbers is welcome, but what we also need to hear is that it will be prioritising primary care, public health and tackling the social determinants of health as part of a coherent strategy. As Abbasi points out (6), you won't ease the pressure on hospitals or improve baseline population health and narrow inequalities unless this is embraced. Most importantly, it will definitely require significant additional long term funding to bring us up nearer to European levels of spending (7).
References
1) https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-com...
2) https://skwawkbox.org/2022/06/14/shadow-health-sec-streeting-takes-large...
3) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/08/people-in-pain-pri...
4) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/12/private-hospitals-...
5) https://lowdownnhs.info/private-providers/streeting-races-up-blind-alley/
6) https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p68
7) https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/charts-and-infographics/how-d...
Competing interests: I am co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public