Virgin Care to take over children's health services in Devon

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Richard Branson's Virgin Care company is the preferred bidder to take over the running of core NHS services in Devon. There is a Guardian article here, but I actually knew this was in the wind some time ago. I was contacted by a recruitment agent that explained how Virgin Care will be making their money. Essentially, they'll be given the same pot of cash that the NHS would have got. Any savings they make within that = profit.

 

Now, it may transpire that the public sector has simply got this wrong the entire time, and that better, more affordable healthcare can be obtained through Branson's outfit. Alternatively, some might be worried that shareholder interests might trump patient welfare. Either way, this is a fairly prominent example of big business supplanting the public sector.

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this bankrupt NHS trust ends up being farmed out to the private sector too.

[trousers]

If only Labour hadn't started this part-privatisation of the NHS malarkey in the first place... ;-)

[Verbal]

Whataboutthelibdems?

 

The 'any savings = profit' line always means this: 1) workers whose contracts are transferred experience a massive drop in pay and conditions; 2) some know-nothing CEO will claim a seven figure annual salary +bonuses; and 3) it'll go horribly wrong, this time with children getting sicker, and the taxpayer will have to bail the whole thing out.

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If only Labour hadn't started this part-privatisation of the NHS malarkey in the first place... ;-)

 

Winky thing aside, completely correct. There are numerous PFI horror stories to mull over, and any politician voting to bring private sector into areas like healthcare and prisons has betrayed the people he or she serves. That includes the last lot who rolled into Downing Street masquerading as Labour politicians, but lets not pretend that the Tories wouldn't have done this anyway. They've got a real bone-on for NHS privatisation.

 

Personally, I don't think it's morally right to make money from incarceration or healthcare. You need prisoners for the former, and sick people for the latter. In the majority of cases, 'profit' is derived by coming in under your allocated government budget, which means cost-savings, basically.

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Whataboutthelibdems?

 

The 'any savings = profit' line always means this: 1) workers whose contracts are transferred experience a massive drop in pay and conditions; 2) some know-nothing CEO will claim a seven figure annual salary +bonuses; and 3) it'll go horribly wrong, this time with children getting sicker, and the taxpayer will have to bail the whole thing out.

 

Southern Cross springs to mind.

 

But yeah, it'll pretty much go down that way.