Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Fwd: qotd: Privately-run NHS hospital racks up £4.1m loss

_______________________________________________
Quote-of-the-day mailing list
Quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/quote-of-the-day

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: Privately-run NHS hospital racks up £4.1m loss
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:24:45 -0700
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



People.co.uk <http://People.co.uk>
October 28, 2012
Fury as first privately run NHS hospital racks up £4.1m loss
By Nick Dorman

Bosses at Britain's first privately-run NHS hospital have asked for a
bailout just six months after taking over.

In a major blow to Tory plans to privatise the health service further,
contractor Circle racked up losses of £4.1million at Hinchingbrooke.

Now the firm, which is run by a former Goldman Sachs banker and has
expressed an interest in running other hospitals, has been forced to ask
the local NHS trust for a cash advance.

The hospital has fallen 19 places from the top of a Government league
table of patient ­satisfaction since it was taken over by Circle.

Last night Unison health union said this raises big questions over Tory
­privatisation plans for the NHS.

Spokesman Anne Mitchell added: "This should force a rethink. Right from
the start our view was a private company would not have the experience
to run a large hospital like Hinch­-ingbrooke.

"They made many claims which they are now ­failing miserably to deliver."

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "Patients are paying the price
for David Cameron's eagerness to hand the NHS to private companies."

http://www.people.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2012/10/28/fury-as-first-privately-run-nhs-hospital-racks-up-4-1m-loss-102039-23936289/

And...

BBC News
October 25, 2012
Hinchingbrooke losses double Circle Health estimate

The first NHS hospital to be run by a private company has revealed
losses in the firm's first six months in charge were almost double those
forecast.

Circle Health took over management of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in
Cambridgeshire in February.

The board reported that 46 nursing posts had been cut so far at the
Huntingdon hospital under Circle's management.

Karen Webb, regional director for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
union, said: "The RCN doesn't see how [quality care] can be achieved by
removing nurses from the system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-20087078

And...

The Telegraph
August 4, 2012
Ali Parsa: Government should not be running hospitals
By Andrew Cave

"It's all about bringing entrepreneurialism, ownership and a sense of
engagement into health care," says Parsa, pointing out that the company
subsidiary delivering the health care is 49.9pc owned by hospital staff.

So, how big can Circle become? Parsa, who came to the UK by himself from
Iran at the age of 16 a few years after the 1979 Islamic revolution and
built up and sold a media promotions company before moving into
investment banking with Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs,
apparently sees no limit.

"I'm an entrepreneur with ambition," he says. "And I didn't come to run
a small company in Circle. We came to create a very large organisation.

"On a 10 to 20-year view, I think the scale of private companies running
NHS health care in Britain could be huge. I honestly cannot see why we
should not be running many, many hospitals in the UK.

"And if we are doing a great job in the UK 10 or 20 years from now,
there's no reason why we should not be doing the same thing all over the
world."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/9450088/Ali-Parsa-Government-should-not-be-running-hospitals.html


Comment: Britain's Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has been
eager to privatize their National Health Service. What a great start.
Hinchingbrooke, now privately managed by former Goldman Sachs banker Ali
Parsa, has racked up losses of £4.1 million and has plummeted on the
Government's new patient satisfaction league table. Apparently Cameron
and his Conservatives are blind as to what has happened across the Atlantic.

Of significance is that the tendering process for this arrangement began
under the Labour government. Just as the Democrats here have supported
an expansion of privatization through private insurers and private
managed care organizations, Labour seems to be complicit in Britain's
move toward privatization. Taking care of the one percenters seems to be
an international phenomenon. Sad.

1 comment: