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NHS ‘could be run by transnationals’

Transnational companies may end up controlling the NHS and other parts of the welfare state as a result of the government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI), warns a recent UNISON briefing.

The warning came as the first contract for a commercial consortium to build and run an NHS hospital, the new Norfolk and Norwich hospital, was signed. The £193m contract is with developers John Laing Construction and the General Healthcare Group.

The PFI allows private sector companies the opportunity to bid for new buildings, improvements or equipment in the NHS, education and social services, resulting in private sector contracts which will typically last 25-60 years. But such contracts are likely to be in the interests of shareholders rather than the public, says UNISON.

‘Once PFI is entrenched in the government’s spending programme private capital will effectively manage and control an ever increasing proportion of welfare state services’, argues the document. ‘If the PFI is allowed to continue, it is inconceivable that companies will not proceed to design and develop their own private welfare services.’

The result, says UNISON, would be a residualisation of the public sector until it served only the very poor. The union, together with the Centre for Public Services, which researched and wrote the briefing, is calling on the Labour Party to halt the PFI programme entirely.

UNISON points out that in many areas the direction of policy has been towards encouraging people to insure themselves for services which they may need in the future.

But the briefing argues that ‘the cost of a DIY welfare s ate would be prohibitive except for those a high incomes.’ It estimates that the cost of private insurance to cover an individual’s health, unemployment, sickness benefit and pension would be about £300 for a single person.

Rebuilding the welfare state. West Midlands UNISON with the Centre for Public Services. £5 plus £1 p&p, from CPS, 1 Sidney Street, Sheffield S1 4RG.