Pensioner strikes blow against reforms of family doctor services
A pensioner has struck a blow against government health reforms after she won a legal battle to stop a US-owned company from taking over family doctor services in part of Derbyshire. The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled that the North Eastern Derbyshire Primary Care Trust had failed properly to consult the residents of two former mining villages before provisionally awarding UnitedHealth Europe a contract to run GP surgeries in the area.
The judgment could slow the government's drive to increase the involvement of the private sector in the National Health Service. PCTs, which purchase local healthcare services on behalf of patients, now face having to consult widely with the public before tendering, providing a focal point for campaigners who say the government is bent on privatising the NHS.
The ruling is doubly embarrassing for the government as the chairman of the European arm of UnitedHealth is Simon Stevens, Tony Blair's former health adviser and a strong advocate of a bigger role for the private sector in healthcare.
The Department of Health insisted the ruling would not affect other contracts with healthcare companies because it hinged on the specific tendering process adopted by one PCT, rather than the principle of private involvement. But campaigners said the ruling could discourage other companies bidding for contracts to run GP services, which could be worth up to £200m.
The government is looking to bring in private providers to deliver services of 800 GPs in 30 areas with a shortage of doctors, mostly in northern England.
Pam Smith, the pensioner who brought the legal challenge, said it was "a real case of David and Goliath". "I would love to be a fly on [health secretary] Patricia Hewitt's wall now. She keeps saying patients have a choice; well we've made our choice. UnitedHealth would only have taken profits. We will keep our NHS public, not private - that's what makes Britain unique."
The court overturned a High Court decision that despite a lack of consultation, UHE would probably have won the contract in any event from among 20 bidders.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fababdfc-330c-11db-87ac-0000779e2340.html
Pam Smith's victory proves what teh public generally think- that choice in the NHS is an illusion: BMA reports that NHS does not provide choice says public More than half the people in a general public survey on patient choice in the health service believe the NHS does not offer choice. The British Medical Association commissioned the survey and is publishing the findings on the eve of its annual meeting.
For background reading- January 02, 2006 Choose and Book- your new right for NHS treatment Most patients in England gain a historic new right this week - to be treated in a private hospital at National Health Service expense. The arrival of "patient choice" - the right to choose, initially from at least four hospitals, and by 2008 from any hospital prepared to meet NHS standards and prices - is a symbolic moment in the Labour government's endeavour to use market forces to drive up health service performance.
Though quite how this policy will actually work in practise- with the introduction of the
Choose and Book NHS IT disaster- which it is currently hoped that it will be delivered 12 months late in December 2006, is anyone's guess.
The judgment could slow the government's drive to increase the involvement of the private sector in the National Health Service. PCTs, which purchase local healthcare services on behalf of patients, now face having to consult widely with the public before tendering, providing a focal point for campaigners who say the government is bent on privatising the NHS.
The ruling is doubly embarrassing for the government as the chairman of the European arm of UnitedHealth is Simon Stevens, Tony Blair's former health adviser and a strong advocate of a bigger role for the private sector in healthcare.
The Department of Health insisted the ruling would not affect other contracts with healthcare companies because it hinged on the specific tendering process adopted by one PCT, rather than the principle of private involvement. But campaigners said the ruling could discourage other companies bidding for contracts to run GP services, which could be worth up to £200m.
The government is looking to bring in private providers to deliver services of 800 GPs in 30 areas with a shortage of doctors, mostly in northern England.
Pam Smith, the pensioner who brought the legal challenge, said it was "a real case of David and Goliath". "I would love to be a fly on [health secretary] Patricia Hewitt's wall now. She keeps saying patients have a choice; well we've made our choice. UnitedHealth would only have taken profits. We will keep our NHS public, not private - that's what makes Britain unique."
The court overturned a High Court decision that despite a lack of consultation, UHE would probably have won the contract in any event from among 20 bidders.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fababdfc-330c-11db-87ac-0000779e2340.html
Pam Smith's victory proves what teh public generally think- that choice in the NHS is an illusion: BMA reports that NHS does not provide choice says public More than half the people in a general public survey on patient choice in the health service believe the NHS does not offer choice. The British Medical Association commissioned the survey and is publishing the findings on the eve of its annual meeting.
For background reading- January 02, 2006 Choose and Book- your new right for NHS treatment Most patients in England gain a historic new right this week - to be treated in a private hospital at National Health Service expense. The arrival of "patient choice" - the right to choose, initially from at least four hospitals, and by 2008 from any hospital prepared to meet NHS standards and prices - is a symbolic moment in the Labour government's endeavour to use market forces to drive up health service performance.
Though quite how this policy will actually work in practise- with the introduction of the
Choose and Book NHS IT disaster- which it is currently hoped that it will be delivered 12 months late in December 2006, is anyone's guess.
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