NHS privatisation by the back door
The UK coalition government today stands accused of attempting to privatise parts of the NHS via the back door with the announcement that NHS Professionals, an agency owned by the government, is up for sale. This is an agency which works wholly with the NHS and has 50,000 workers available to cover 2 million shifts a year for over 70 UK healthcare trusts.
It is unclear at this moment in time exactly why the UK government feels the need to spin off NHS Professionals and indeed how much money the government would expect to raise. However, the introduction of private companies into the NHS is something which has been ongoing for some time, although perhaps not as blatant as the sale of a UK government asset.
Whether or not the coalition government has further plans to nationalise parts, or indeed all, of the NHS in due course remains to be seen but this move has attracted criticism from the unions and will no doubt end up in industrial action. There is a feeling, amongst unions and workers, that a sale of the agency would create a short-term cash injection for the UK government but would ultimately see the cost of employing agency workers grow in the future.
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