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* 42 ICS will determine healthcare in their geographic area * Virgincare and other private healthcare companies on their boards * No bar to introducing healthcare charging Tomorrow (Wednesday 14th July 2021) in Parliament the NHS Abolition Bill is being debated, and thus the final destruction of the Nation al Health Service, and indeed any form of nationally determined and funded healthcare in England. Once this Bill becomes an ACT of Parliament, healthcare in England will be run as a business, controlled and determined by Business; as it is in the USA!
They have already reported Government propaganda with regards to the Bill, stating it ends competitive tendering by decree as stated in the HSC Act 2012. The reality is that the Bill does remove competitive tendering that was introduced in the HSC Act2012, but IT DOES NOT REMOVE IT! The 42 Integrated Care Systems replacing CCGs and creating a patchwork if healthcare across England with no uniform delivery across the country; allows them to contract out ALL NHS services if they wish to! Further, there is no specific requirement for any of their boards to include ANY clinicians on the board, despite NHS England issueing basic rules for the ICS Boards to look at. Already at least one ICS Board (ICS covering Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire) does include private healthcare company Virgincare. We could also see US company Centene and its subsidiary in the UK Operose which owns 41 GP surgeries in London, on their ICS Board. Indeed, as previously reported by unionsafety, Centene is embedded within every single NHS Trust and has been for several years. As numerous informed bodies and campaign groups have stated in the lead up to this Bill and since the announcement of it in the Queen’s Speech in February; the 'National' Health Service will no longer exist, and will be replaced with 'Local' Health Services controlled and determined by business, local authority official plus private healthcare companies. Virgincare and others will then determine whether a private healthcare company or the NHS provides your healthcare in your area as well as how and with whom your National Insurance Contributions and NHS money is spent! This is of course no surprise to those aware of the history of the privatisation of the NHS! In 2000 the then Labour Government's Health Secretary, Alan Milburn sought direct advice from Virgin Atlantic on the interface between medical staff and patients! The result was this document available from the E-Library: 'Customer Service In The NHS'
The political closeness to the Labour Government of Richard Branson didn't go unnoticed and raised alarm to many in the NHS! Milburn was involved with private healthcare companies and saw the NHS as a business! They first brought in Simon Stevens, the then head of the American company United Health as their president of their European section, as an adviser, and the rest, as they say is history. Furthermore, the Labour Parliamentary Party support the principle of the American model of Integrate Care Systems (ICS) as Jonathon Ashworth wrote in The Guardian in December 2020, that a Labour Government would make them democratic - whatever that means! The 42 ICS as set up now prior to legislation, will be given the power to determine local pay rates for NHS staff in each of their areas, and have their own constitutions. This will signal too, the end of the NHS Constitution as it currently stands and the end of public ownership of our NHS healthcare delivery.
Given those voting Tory at the last general election gave them an 80 seat majority, there is nothing that can be done to stop this abolition of the NHS. Quite bluntly people were warned about this but decided to trust Boris Johnson assertion there is no intention to sell off the NHS to US companies. He then ensured access to the NHS by US healthcare and insurance companies, embedded them in to NHS England by way of paying them as consultants, and made them central to the ICS (American healthcare system) development in England. We will wait and see if any changes are made to the Bill by opposition party MPs and the odd Tory MP concerned about some aspects of the Bill, but what can be already determined is that the basic action of the Bill to abolish the current form of the NHS, set up 42 ICSs controlled and run independently and by non-clinical or medical Boards which include private healthcare companies from the UK and the US, and with the ability to introduce healthcare charging; will not change! This new Tory NHS Bill called the Health and Care Bill, is in reality and affect, the final nail in the coffin of the NHS! Source: UK Parliament / NHS Federation / 999 Call For The NHS / Keep Our NHS Public / The Guardian See also: NHS Privatisation News Archive for further and background information The Unionsafety E-Library for copies of the legislation, documentation and reports How private healthcare companies could threaten the ethics and efficiency of the NHS: Destabilising Our National Healthcare - available from the E-Library
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