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Streeting has now given Alan Milburn a free hand to totally privatise the running of the NHS and stated two days ago that the NHS is a 'business like any other and must provide value for money!' The fact that Melburn is back in Government, means there is no hope that the NHS can be saved from US Healthcare companies a Speaking on 18th November 2023, Wes Streeting made it clear that the NHS will be run as any other 'Global business'!
He said he hopes to get “quite tough on NHS England” to work with private sector companies on improving the service, and to invest in new technology. “I want those entrepreneurs that are coming up with cutting edge treatments and technologies to know that when they come up with a great idea that can deliver better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers’ money, they’re not going to struggle to get through the front door of the NHS,” Streeting told the paper. Referring to a visit to Albania, he said they are streets ahead of UK. He said: “I mean sometimes they [NHS] move at pedestrian pace. Why is it for example that where a treatment or technology is proven to work, proven to deliver better outcomes for patients and proven to deliver good value for taxpayers’ money in one NHS trust, do those innovators then have to try and tout their wares one by one around every other NHS trust?” "We stand by our decision to prioritise the health service: healthy businesses depend on a healthy workforce and a strong economy depends on a strong NHS." "Lord Darzi’s investigation into the NHS concluded that the problem is not too many managers, but too few with the right skills and capabilities. The NHS is one of the biggest organisations in the world. .........We should be competing with global businesses to attract top talent, and for that we need to attract and retain the best." Further, he made it clear that he will continue with the Tory destruction of the NHS as per the legalising of ICS/ICB fracturing of the NHS: "The framework I’m setting out today is based on triple devolution: with power shifting out of the centre to integrated care boards (ICBs), to providers and, crucially, to patients. I want to lead an NHS where power is moved from the centre to the local and from the local to the citizen."
"The ‘N’, the national, in NHS is important. It should be the guarantee that patients everywhere are treated according to the same values and the same standards." Yet, the basis of the American ICS system does NOT deliver the 'N' in national but replaces it with the 'L' of a Local Health Service with all the power to cut services, hospitals and ensure finances come first, whilst the needs of patients comes second. "We should ensure the same standards of care in every part of the country ....... I want ICBs to focus on their job as strategic commissioners and be responsible for one big thing: the development of a new neighbourhood health service." This will not be obtained by the Tory ICS system, which will only ensure more expensive healthcare, fewer hospitals, GPs and ensure huge profits for private healthcare companies whilst the NHS budget will continue to be stretched and thinned out by increasing cost to the private sector, legal penalties and fines, and above all premature deaths and greater health inequality. You can read his whole speech via the Gov.UK website here The fear of NHS patients and support groups are now at their worst, as they watch as Streeting brings in the US Healthcare methods to deliver what he blandly calls 'an NHS for the future'! United Healthcare, one of the biggest US healthcare companies and ex-employer of Simon Stevens who ran the NHS before heading into the House of Lords, is already involved in the design and delivery of NHS services having bought up EMIS (Patient Access), via Optum, runs clinics and hospitals in the UK, and was involved with the Tory Government in developing the American healthcare model of Accountable Care Organisations within the NHS, now called Integrated Care Systems. They fear that NHS England will now utilise business management techniques and procedures such as targeting of NHS managers and clinical staff with KPIs, minimising time spent on individual patients similar to call handling targets in a call centre, cuts in pay if targets not met, HR management of clinical staff including disciplinary methodisation: in order to improve productivity, and minimising costs. Targets will no doubt include management and manipulation of statistics in order to meet targets e.g. getting as many patients out of hospital and into local private providers of healthcare, minimising admissions and referrals to clinical specialisms that need the patient to remain in hospital, vastly reducing the use of blood tests, xrays, and CRT/MRI tests ordered by A&E and referring as many patients back to their GPS and Community based private healthcare providers. This may well cause premature deaths, re-admissions as people are dismissed too early from Hospital, endemic refusal of hospital admission, mis-diagnosis, and simply mirror the appalling state of mental health in the community and that of social care driven by profit. Look at the US and that is the goal of this Tory-lite government!! Add to this the de-skilling of clinical staff and replacement of doctors, nurses, GPs and other grades with Physician Associates, Physician Radiologists, etc. Already, consultants Price Waterhouse Cooper are taking over the financial policies of NHS England and many of the 42 ICS that have replaced the NHS in England, by using financial penalties to push the business agenda which is based on profit making from all Integrated Care Boards, in the long-term, with the short term being one of cuts and balancing of deficits; inevitably caused by an NHS budget that does not cover costs.
Equally, the fines for mismanagement of services provided by private healthcare companies and ICS's around the country, deplete the funds given by the Government via NHS England and the health of patients. Over £15,870,883 in penalties have been awarded since 2010 when the Tories took over Government. One of the greatest causes of NHS debt has been the so-called Private Finance Initiative (PFI) which was the dream of Tony Blair's Secretary of State in charge of NHS policy, Alan Milburn. He also appointed the above mentioned Simon Stevens who was employed by United Healthcare as their European President; to advise Blair's government on the future of the NHS. He was then made head of the NHS. With Streeting turning to him to head up NHS recovery and have major input into Labour's version of the NHS England 10 year plan, ( you can download the existing one from the E-Library); the NHS will continue to be aligned with the US healthcare system, ready for a Trade Deal which will see the NHS transformed into a cash-cow for US healthcare companies. We will see the state of healthcare in the US become the norm in the UK, and the imposition private healthcare companies owning the NHS and able to push healthcare insurance onto the UK public - with increased ill-health, denial of healthcare, patients being sent home prematurely and greater premature deaths, with more cancer treatment failing as it does in the US; and as Streeting wants - healthcare and the NHS being a business, just like any other. Source: The Lowdown / NHS Not For Sale / The National / Gov.UK / The i Newspaper See also: NHS Privatisation News Archive
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Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said he would “hold the door wide open” to the NHS for the private sector if his party was to win the general election. Streeting's comments were said on a recent episode of the i newspaper podcast, Labour’s Plan For Power. 
But of course the opposite is true. ICBs are not accountable to patients but to NHS England and the private companies they grant contracts to. Local people have no say when it comes to decision making of the ICB.