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Camden News - SIMON WROE
Published: 23 October 2008

Sir Robert Naylor: ‘I don’t believe in primary healthcare being run by the private sector’

Forget private firms, let us run polyclinic pleads hospital boss

Chief executive calls for patients to have say on who operates new service

THE chief executive of University College London Hospital has told the New Journal how he has turned down jobs in private companies because he does not want to leave the NHS.
Sir Robert Naylor used an interview to make clear his opposition to a private firm running a new polyclinic at the Bloomsbury hospital.
The supersized unit, which could swamp GP surgeries in the area, is thought likely to interest a private company although enthusiasm may have cooled as the credit crunch bites. Virgin has already been approached by Camden Primary Care Trust but talks have stalled.
Sir Robert said on Friday he thought the new polyclinic should be run by UCLH. “I personally agree with the philosophical concerns about the private sector,” he said. “I have had job offers from companies but I’ve turned them down because I want to be in the NHS.”
He suggested campaigners who have been pressing to keep private companies out of the deal should not give up.
“Never underestimate the strength of the public voice and the media,” he said. “The public have huge power, but they don’t use it.”
Sir Robert added: “I don’t believe in primary healthcare being run by the private sector. I do not believe we [health professionals] are here to fill the pockets of shareholders.
“The public must be able to say whether they support the polyclinic and, if they do, whether it is run by a private company.”
Camden Primary Care Trust has the final say on who operates the polyclinic, but services director Mark Atkinson told a board meeting last month it would not consult patients specifically on whether a service being put out for tender should be provided by a private firm or not.
The issue of the PCT’s consultation has become a sore point after a private firm, UnitedHealth, was allowed to seize control of three Camden surgeries without patients being informed.
Initially, four Bloomsbury GP surgeries were warned they would be moved into the new polyclinic at UCLH, but the PCT has backed down and has confirmed no surgeries will be forcibly moved.
In June, the New Journal revealed the PCT had held talks with Richard Branson’s Virgin empire about running the service.
Sir Robert said he was trying to convince the PCT to allow UCLH to bid for the polyclinic contract – a heavyweight offer the PCT would find hard to justify turning down. He said: “We are going to have a polyclinic in the hospital. The PCT may decide they don’t want us to run it, but they will have to persuade the public that companies should run it. The PCT will have to justify why they are spending more on the private sector than getting a better deal with the public sector.”
He added: “Right now the private sector are running away from this because of the credit crunch. There’s no way the private sector in the current credit crunch could build a polyclinic. Virgin have announced they are no longer interested in running these centres.”

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