Alan Milburn is wrong – private hospitals have done little for the NHS

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/16/alan-milburn-private-hospitals-nhs

Alan Milburn, who succeeded me as health secretary, and Lord Warner, who was later a junior health minister, have come out hot and strong in support of the original NHS proposals David Cameron and Andrew Lansley have been forced to modify in the face of overwhelming professional opposition. They justify their stance by peddling the myth that their promotion of private sector hospitals was a success, was the main reason the NHS has improved and good for the taxpayer. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The facts don't back up these spurious claims. When Labour came to power the NHS was performing 5.7 million operations. In 2009/10 the figure was 9.7 million, an increase of 58%. This was the result of improved working practices developed by NHS staff, the biggest hospital building programme in history, new and better equipment and drugs, the 79,000 extra nurses and 27,000 extra doctors. All paid for by Labour's massive increase in investment in the NHS. As a result, waiting lists and waiting times were dramatically reduced and the quality of treatment and care was improved.

What did the private sector contribute to all these improvements? The most generous answer is "not a lot". Its contribution ranged from 0.07% of NHS patients treated in 2003/4 to 2.14% in 2009/10. And the private sector creamed off straightforward, less-risky operations on patients who were otherwise healthy, leaving the NHS to bear the cost of treating all the rest including complex operations, A&E, emergency beds, intensive care, professional training and long-term care. And for most of this period the private sector got paid 11% more per operation than the NHS got paid for the same operations. So the taxpayer has been getting nine operations for the price of 10. And that's not all. The private sector got paid for the operations they were contracted to provide but didn't do. Of the £1.78bn paid to the private sector no less than £230m (12.9%) was for operations not carried out.

The NHS reached its target of an average maximum wait of three months for a cataract operation two years early. Tony Blair attributed this to the involvement of the private sector. He must have been badly briefed by the privatising enthusiasts. The facts are that when Labour came to power in 1997, the NHS was doing 165,000 cataract operations a year. By 2003 it was doing 306,000 and in 2009/10 had reached 346,000. According to a recent parliamentary answer, the private sector had contributed to a cumulative grand total of 43,000 over seven years: an average of 6,000 a year.

[LeftishBrit]

1. k&r& THANKS for posting!

Alan Milburn is vile; British answer to a DINO - a Labour ex-Health Minister who basically attacked the current government for not being right-wing ENOUGH, and yielding too much to pressures against the privatization, oops, I mean reform, of the NHS.

Though I never liked Milburn, this was a shock and I felt kicked in the stomach.

Glad Frank Dobson is speaking out.

[xchrom]

2. after everything we've been hearing about reforming NHS -- it was nice to see this guy

come out with something so clear and concise and pretty tough.

[txlibdem]

3. Again proving that Privatization does nothing but transfer public money to for-profit entities

Especially troubling is the private hospitals cherry-picked the easy cases (read: cheaper) and yet still came out behind the public hospitals.

Privatization DOES NOT WORK. Citizens need to oust any politician who continues the lie that it does.