A private company, listed on the stock market, has been given the right to deliver a full range of hospital services for the first time in the history of the NHS, reigniting a debate about the use of business in the health sector. Circle Healthcare will take over Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust in Cambridgeshire as part of a £1bn 10-year contract.
Circle will become the first ever non-state provider to deliver a full range of NHS district general hospital services.
Circle Healthcare, a John Lewis-style partnership valued at around £120m, will manage the debt-laden Hinchingbrooke hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, from February after the government signed off on a decade-long contract on Wednesday. Although private sector firms already operate units within the NHS – Circle, one of Britain's most prominent healthcare providers, is the first to take over an entire hospital.
The takeover is not considered a full privatisation as the buildings will remain in public hands and the employees retain their pay and pension on existing terms. However, Circle is viewed by ministers as a model "mutual" with 49% of its ownership in staff hands. (So who has the other controlling 51%.) It operates a scheme to allow more shares to be gained through a performance-related rewards system. Significantly this allows doctors to take a slice of the profits – and this landmark deal, the government hopes, will lead to other cash-strapped NHS hospitals consider outsourcing their management to private companies.
When private money and state healthcare or any other service get into bed together you can be sure it wont be healthy. Nothing good can come from this in the long term. Privatisation only ever means cutting costs. They can never do it better - only cheaper. Unless you course you have the means to pay. Sad thing is most haven't.
