The first private company to take over an NHS hospital has admitted in a document seen by the Observer newspaper that patient care could suffer under its plans to expand its empire and seek profit from the health service.
Circle Health is already feeling a strain on resources due to its aggressive business strategy, the document reveals, and the firm's ambition to further expand into the NHS "could affect its ability to provide a consistent level of service to its patients", it says.
The company, run by a former Goldman Sachs banker, was awarded management of Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridgeshire last week in a ground-breaking move lauded by ministers as a "good deal for patients and staff".
However, the government was forced to answer an urgent question in the Commons after the move sparked furious accusations that the deal was privatising the NHS and putting jobs and health services in jeopardy. Concerns over the future of the health service were further heightened when David Cameron, in a speech on regulation and the economy, said he wanted the NHS to be a "fantastic business for Britain".
The revelation that the company shares some of the fears of its critics has caused fresh uproar.
The quest for profits at any cost begets this absolute madness I think. After all a Goldman Sachs banker in charge of the whole thing, and a Tory party idea - what could possibly go wrong?? Oh just about everything I predict!!!
