Stories on commercial medicine
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Features
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Cock-up or conspiracy?
Labour’s enthusiasm for privatisation, especially in view of disasters such as Railtrack, is beyond rational argument, warns Ron Singer
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Losers in the transfer market
John Lister explains why the GMB is opposed to the government’s retention of employment policy for NHS staff affected by PFI deals
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The health cost of free trade
Global ‘free trade’ rules threaten the integrity of basic services such as health and water – and the General Agreement on Trade in Services should come with its own health warning, says John Hilary
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It’s the same old song
The report from the IPPR’s ‘Commission on Public-Private Partnerships’ avoids the language of the market – but however you look at it, the objective of private health care providers is profit, argues Sally Ruane
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Getting a cut of the action
Giving private companies a bigger role seems central to Labour’s current NHS reforms – but as Richard Lewis explains, private health care seems to be less cost-effective and may even cost more
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A licence to bill?
A private health care company guilty of fraudulent billing in the US is now busy in the UK. Geof Rayner asks whether it can be trusted
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Look behind the mask
Under Labour’s public-private ‘concordat’ increasing numbers of NHS patients will be cared for in the private sector. But will the safety and clinical standards of commercial hospitals be up to scratch? Richard Ennals has doubts
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A very messy business
Before the Care Standards Act, private healthcare was largely unregulated by the state – despite its ‘market’ being ill and vulnerable people. But, Richard Ennals asks, will the Act improve patients’ rights of redress if medical procedures go wrong?
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A tale of two incomes
Proposals that new consultants work exclusively in the NHS for a fixed period are long overdue, says Peter Fisher
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Figuring out private health care
Charting the size of the private health care sector in the UK isn’t easy as it should be, say the Radical Statistics Health Group
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Now inject some accountability
In October ministers signed a ‘concordat’ between the NHS and the private sector. But if this marriage is to last there are some relationship issues to resolve first, warns Martin Rathfelder
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Why we’d rather go public
Though it admits competitive tendering has failed, New Labour still seems to believe in private health care, says Steven Weeks
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Any sense in going private?
Recent proposals to use private nursing homes for NHS ‘bed blockers’ haven’t been thought through, says Lorna Easterbrook
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PFI – you’ll Pay For It later
Far from solving the cash shortage in the NHS, the Private Finance Initiative makes matters worse by draining the budgets that pay for services and staff, explains Allyson Pollock
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Can we afford to go private?
Fifty years on, a consultants’ right to work privately is still jealously guarded and the effect this has on the NHS is still unclear. Laurence Pollock examines New Labour’s uncertain position on private health care
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Good news for Labour on capital
Which is more efficient: the public sector or the private sector? Labour shouldn’t take the answer for granted, argues Jean Shaoul
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2007: look back in anger
In ten years the Private Finance Initiative will be seen as lethal medicine for the NHS, warns Dexter Whitfield
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Is this a good investment?
The government’s private finance initiative distorts NHS priorities, weakens democratic control and risks destroying the public sector ethos of the health service, warns Dexter Whitfield
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Radical surgery
In failing to create an open market in healthcare, the NHS reforms have been a frustration to the Right - but the think tanks still have ideas for radical reform. Wendy Moore investigates
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Private health care: just what the doctor ordered?
Does private medicine help or hinder the NHS? Here, Lorrayne Holt and Lorna Roshier contribute opposing views, from their general studies essays, to the panacea-or-parasite debate.
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Stemming the ‘second wave’
Government efforts to extend privatisation to NHS labs should be vigorously resisted, says John Chowcat
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Calculating the cost of competition
As clinical services head towards the open market, Stephen Bach examines the record of competitive tendering
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Columns
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News from nowhere
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News from nowhere
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New Labour promises but old Tory policies
Labour’s warm embrace of the Private Finance Initiative for the NHS stands in stark – and disturbing – contrast to the impression it had previously given to Labour voters, says Charles Webster
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But can the market deliver?
Eric the Heretic bears down on the market niche of ‘independent midwifery’
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News
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UCLH struggles to balance books
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‘Patient choice’ could drain NHS of cash
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Health research serves profit rather than the public
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NHS policy U-turn is ‘costly experiment’
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MPs split on role of the private sector
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Labour’s BUPA deal ‘depressing’
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Labour’s plans for NHS meet strong protest
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PFI protest puts a new doctor in the house
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NHS helps private sector fill beds
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Challenge to consultants’ contracts
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NHS Plan sets target to reduce inequality
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Private regulation needs public pressure
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NHS trusts increasingly turn to private earnings
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CHC calls for new powers to represent patients
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Private sector struggles to control costs
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Growth in private insurance undermines support for the NHS
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NHS waiting times grow while surgeons work for the rich
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Privatising options on parade
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NHS beds for NHS patients
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Growing old in private
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Reviews
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Why pay more?
Public-Private Relations in Health Care
Justin Keen, Donald Light and Nicholas Mays
Kings Fund, 2001. £14.99 -
Muddying the waters
PUBLIC SERVICES OR CORPORATE WELFARE: Rethinking the Nation State in the Global Economy
Dexter Whitfield
Pluto, 2001, £16.99
MAKING SENSE OF THE PRIVATE FINANCE INITIATIVE
Courtney A Smith
Radcliffe Medical Press, 1999, £27.50 -
Avoiding the issues
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Maureen Devlin
Radcliffe Medical Press, 1998, £15.00 -
Cut it out!
Private eye, heart amd hip: surgical consultants, the NHS and private medicine
John Yates
Churchill Livingstone, 1995, £14.95 -
Private choices in public
GOING PRIVATE: WHY PEOPLE PAY FOR THEIR HEALTH CARE
Michael Calnan, Sarah Cant and Jonathan Gabe
Open University Press, 1993, £10.99
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Letters
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Editorials
