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Londoners facing a serious threat to their health care
• IN your Comment (The privatisation juggernaut rumbles on regardless, April 2) you rightly drew attention to some of the dangers of commercial companies delivering NHS care.
You described the threats to the training of the next generation of health professionals because, of course, commercial companies don’t want this expense.
You pointed out the money wasted by contracts which guarantee payment regardless of activity, and which pay more than the NHS receives for treating less complex patients, who get sent back to the NHS when things go wrong.
But the problems go beyond this.
The diversion of money to the private sector means money lost to local hospitals, who still have to run the expensive services such as A&E and intensive care units. These vital services have traditionally been cross-subsidised by the less complex work which is now being diverted to the private sector. This is destabilising for our local hospitals, some of which are already burdened with large overheads from expensive PFI programmes.
In addition local hospitals will be further threatened by Lord Darzi’s plans which propose the movement of the majority of their outpatient work into “polyclinics” and specialist work into large centres.
It is predicted that they will lose up to 37 per cent of their budget, and it is difficult to see how they will survive.
Add to this the dangers to primary care from the incursions of the commercial sector and it is clear that London’s health care is under threat.
There has been no attempt to pilot any of these changes, as the health politicians are so sure they are right.
They wouldn’t tolerate this behaviour from the professionals, and we shouldn’t tolerate it from them
DR JACKY DAVIS
Steering Committee Keep Our NHS Public www.keepournhspublic.com
Patshull Road, NW5
Build more hospitals
• AS your Comment (April 2) points out so well, private treatment centres are not wanted in the NHS.
After working 30 years in the health service I have watched it become fragmented, with private cleaners and builders, and now polyclinics.
This at a time Britain is in deep recession. With two million people unemployed I hope the next government puts the NHS back to basics.
Set up four large general hospital trusts and four large mental hospital trusts in the capital. With an expected eight million residents in the future it needs four good NHS specialist hospitals, supported by local general hospitals, north, south, east and west, each providing care for about two million residents.
JOHN STURMAN
Enfield
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