NHS pays out record compensation for botched private procedures - and Labour wants MORE of this?

The NHS paid out £175m over the last five years in compensation and legal fees after private providers carried out botched procedures leaving people needing amputation, more surgery, in unnecessary pain, or even dying.

NHS compensation: does for-profit mean worse care?

The compensation statistics from NHS Resolution raise serious questions about private provision of NHS services and the Labour Party government’s plan to increase them. Health secretary Wes Streeting has said that he wants to “go further” than Tony Blair on NHS privatisation.

That’s despite the compensation the NHS has paid to patients who received failed treatment from private companies more than doubling in the last five years.

Over the half decade, the NHS settled 1,063 cases where patients suffered negligent care from private provision. The most recent financial year saw five patients dying because of low-standard care from the private sector.

It’s a similar story for the privatisation of adult and child social care. For-profit companies are significantly more likely to face forced closure and receive much lower ratings from regulators than when public authorities provide the care.

Labour wants more private provision

In the budget, Labour did announce a £16.6bn increase in NHS funding over the next two years (when accounting for their 2% ‘savings’ cut). But it’s unclear how much of that will go to increased private provision or fresh private finance initiative (PFI) scams. The NHS already loses £10m a week to private profit, according to research from We Own It. With that money, the NHS could hire 370 nurses a week for a whole year at their starting salary.

Chiming with Streeting’s comments on increased privatisation, Labour has appointed former health secretary Alan Milburn as lead non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care. Milburn led the roll out of disastrous PFI scams that saw private providers overcharge the public finances by around £250bn for infrastructure. NHS Trusts continue to struggle to pay back the healthcare portion of this (at £2bn a year of the around £50bn they still owe), with the amount they owe increasing with inflation.

Speaking to the Times, Milburn said:

People have got to stop thinking that the answer to the NHS problem is simply more and more money… The NHS is in the worst state I’ve ever seen and I’ve been around health policy now for 30 years. I genuinely think it’s drinking in the last-chance saloon.

The last time Milburn said the NHS was on its last legs it was code for more private profiteering. As health secretary, he referred to the private finance scams as “PFI or bust”.

At present, the NHS remains generally free at the point of use with private companies mainly leeching profit from healthcare budgets rather than through user charges. Although, Wheelshare is one example of user charges that Labour has overseen.

Aside from compensation, NHS Million has pointed out the costs we would endure if the government fully privatises the health service, as could be the ultimate aim:

Could you afford your treatment without the NHS?

We must put a stop to the creeping privatisation of health services in the UK.

Please repost if you agree. pic.twitter.com/sZ4DU17thw

— NHS Million (@NHSMillion) November 13, 2024