Labour just oversaw a £1.3 BILLION SELL-OFF of NHS services to a private equity firm

There’s no other way to dress this up, except for the headline: the Labour Party just oversaw a £1.3 BILLION SELL-OFF of NHS community services to a private equity firm, in Wiltshire.

The Great Labour NHS sell off has begun

As HSJ reported (behind a paywall, of course – HSJ can’t have the people actually affected by NHS privatisation reading about it):

A private firm has been awarded a contract worth around £1.3bn to lead community health services for an entire integrated care system for up to nine years.

HCRG Care Group will be the lead provider for all adult and community services across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System from April.

It represents the biggest such contract award by an integrated care board to date.

HCRG already provides some services on the patch but will now take over from the four other main providers: Great Western Hospitals Foundation Trust, Oxford Health FT, and a partnership of three NHS trusts serving Wiltshire via a joint venture.

It noted that HCRG will take on existing staff and “deliver core services directly”. However, NHS community services providers who lost out told HSJ:

We are disappointed that BSW Communities Together will not be leading community-based care, however we remain committed to providing excellent care and helping people live healthier lives.

We will continue to work together, and in partnership with HCRG Care Group, to improve care across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire. We are proud of the outstanding care our staff provide and we are focused on supporting them through this change. Patients will continue to receive the same care and support by many of the same people.

HSJ noted that:

Its tender notice set an upper value of £1.8bn, but today’s announcement said the annual value was £144m – equating to £1.3bn over nine years.

NHS community services privatisation, just with a different rosette

Predictably, people on X were furious:

Another NHS service sold off to the private sector

Profits over patients.

Somehow this feels more crushing under a Labour government. Didn’t they promise a vote for them would save the NHS?!

This is NOT what we voted for
This is NOT what we consented for

STOP PRIVATISATION! pic.twitter.com/CXR4XalaUL

— Neena Jha (@DrNeenaJha) October 17, 2024

Dr Rachel Clarke noted how HCRG was owned by a private equity company – just the kind of people you want running healthcare;

A consortium of NHS, local authority & charities also made a bid to run the community services – as they were already doing. But no, the contract was awarded to an outfit whose owners celebrate realising 'significant tangible wealth' via, for example, 'corporate carve-outs'. 2/n pic.twitter.com/ozaMWkwoC5

— Dr Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) October 17, 2024

The company, Twenty20 Capital, already has its fingers in other private health pies. So, as NHS Supporters summed up:

HCRG Care is owned by private equity – the aim of private equity is profit and as fast as possible

How is such an approach compatible with good patient care?

These companies just suck money out of the NHS that could have been used to improve thingshttps://t.co/jdo9l9VvON

— NHS Supporters (@nhs_supporters) October 16, 2024

As openDemocracy noted, HCRG “was taken over by a private equity firm called Twenty20 Capital in 2021, which is run by investor and entrepreneur Tristan Ramus”.

Nice work if you can get it – as Twenty20 Capital tuned over £618m in 2023. £16m of that was profit, and it paid out around £4m in dividends to shareholders. However, this was dwarfed by the £27m it paid out in 2022.

So, if you live in Wiltshire and were wondering where YOUR public money for NHS community services was going – well, there’s your answer.

You’d be forgiven for thinking we still had a Tory government – but only if you were foolish enough to believe Labour would be any different in the first place.

Featured image via the Canary