Hancock must block NHS privatisation - Ashworth

Labour will today slam the Health Secretary for proceeding full steam ahead with NHS privatisation, as it reveals 19 new contracts worth £36 million have been put out to tender since mid-February.

Today new House of Commons Library analysis undertaken for Labour reveals atotal of 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million are currently out to tender.

This includes a £91 million contract to run an NHS 111/Clinical Assessment Service in the South East, which has been out to tender since 10 February 2019.

On 19 February 2019, Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, demanded the Health Secretary block private companies from securing 26 NHS contracts worth over £128 million out to tender at the time after Matt Hancock MP promised “there would be no privatisation of the NHS under my watch.”

Ashworth will today accuse the Health Secretary of breaking his promise and demand that he prioritises ending privatisation of the NHS by keeping these contracts in public hands- instead of working on his own Tory leadership bid.

The 2012 Health and Social Care Act obliges NHS CCGs in England to tender out any contract worth over £615,278. This has led to a huge increase in the number of NHS contracts awarded to profit-driven firms such as Virgin Care.

These contracts are tendered on precisely the same regulations and legislation that NHS England's Long Term Plan has urged the Government to repeal. Labour is demanding ministers step in, follow NHS England and block this competitive tendering which undermines true integration of services in public hands.

In 2017/18, £8.8bn of the health service budget went to independent sector providers- a 50% increase compared with 2009/10.

It recently emerged that the Health Secretary has endorsed Access MyDentist, a private firm profiting from patients who cannot access an NHS dentist due to cuts. 

This is just the latest in a string of endorsements of private healthcare by Matt Hancock MP.

In November 2018, Justin Madders MP, Labour’s former Shadow Health Minister, wrote to the Prime Minister expressing concerns that the Secretary of State may have breached the Ministerial Code by endorsing Babylon, a private healthcare company, in a paid-for-newspaper supplement.

Babylon’s GP at Hand, of which Matt Hancock is a patient, has been roundly criticised by doctors’ groups ‘cherry picking’ fit, young and health patients and financially destabilising traditional GP practice.

Earlier this week NHS England threatened to sue Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust for libel, for raising concerns that privatising a key element of cancer treatment would endanger patients’ health. 

Labour has pledged to reverse privatisation of the NHS and return the health service into expert public control, as well as repealing the Health and Social Care Act which puts profits before patients.

Speaking today at the Health Campaigns Together Annual General Meeting, Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, will say:

“Since the Tory’s wasteful reorganisation of the NHS we’ve seen privatisation after privatisation of NHS services, breaking up integrated care, costing the taxpayer and leaving a poor quality service for patients.

“Labour will bring an end to this profiteering in our NHS and restore our health service to public hands.

“Tory privatisation will be killed stone dead under a Labour government and we’ll bring forward the necessary legislation to reverse the Health and Social Care Act and reinstate a publicly provided NHS in our first Queen’s Speech.

“A few weeks ago the Health Secretary told MPs there would be no privatisation on his watch and yet we’ve seen cancer PET-CT scanning services in Oxford privatised, and today we’re revealing another £36 million worth of contracts put out to tender in the last few weeks.

“Rather than focusing on his own personal manoeuvrings for the Tory leadership, Mr Hancock should be true to his word and now block these latest NHS privatisation proposals.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

• House of Commons Library research, commissioned by Labour, reveals 21 healthcare contracts from NHS England and CCGs worth£126,985,403are currently out to tender under the Section 75 procurement regulations in the 2012 Health & Social Care Act.
• The largest of these contracts currently out for tender is worth£90,552,000 to run an NHS 111/Clinical Assessment Service for Kent, Medway & Sussex CCGs. It waspublished on 10/02/19 by NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit. The contract would start on 01/04/2020 and run until 31/03/2025.
• 19 of these 21 contracts, worth£36,433,403, have been put out to tender since 19 February. This includes a £16 millioncontract to provide a Clinical Navigation Hub Service for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland CCG. It was published on 18 March 2019 by NHS Midlands & Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit. The contract would start on 01/01/2020 and run until 31/03/2024.
• The central place where these contracts are advertised isContracts Finder.
• According to Department of Health and Social Care Annual reports, a total of £8.8 billion was spent with independent sector providers in 2017/18. This has more thandoubled compared with £4.1 billion in 2009/10.
• Section 7.14 of theNHS Long Term Plan includes a proposal to “Cut delays and costs of the NHS automatically having to go through procurement processes. We propose to free up NHS commissioners to decide the circumstances in which they should use procurement, subject to a ‘best value’ test to secure the best outcomes for patients and the taxpayer. The current rules lead to wasted procurement costs and fragmented provision, particularly across the GP/urgent care/community health service workforce. This would mean repealing the specific procurement requirements in the Health and Social Care 2012 Act.”  
• Speaking at the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s oral evidencesession on the Budget and NHS long-term plan on 31 January 2019, Matt Hancock MP said: 
  
  “I am going to be much more concrete. There is no privatisation of the NHS on my watch, and the integrated care contracts will go to public sector bodies to deliver the NHS in public hands.”

• The 2017 Labour manifesto pledged that: “The next Labour government will reverse privatisation of our NHS and return our health service into expert public control. Labour will repeal the Health and Social Care Act that puts profits before patients and make the NHS the preferred provider. We will reinstate the powers of the Secretary of State for Health to have overall responsibility for the NHS.”
• In January it was revealed that Matt Hancock MP has thrown his weight behind MyDentist- an enterprise that targets areas with a shortage of NHS services.
• Last November, Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister,wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May outlining concerns with Matt Hancock’s links to private GP provider Babylon.

Key criticisms of Babylon’s GP at Hand:

• Doctors in Unite has said it is ‘threatening general practice across the UK’.
• TheRCGP has said it is “undoubtedly luring GPs away from front-line general practice at a time when we are facing a severe workforce crisis”.
• TheRCGP has said Babylon risks “undermining and damaging traditional general practice services. We do not endorse Babylon, or its GP at Hand service, being used in the way that it is, in the NHS.”

The 21 healthcare contracts from NHS England and CCGs currently out for tender worth £126,985,403 are as follows:

• On 19 February during a General Debate on the NHS Long Term Plan in te House of Commons, Jonathan Ashworth MP called on the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock to block 26 healthcare contracts from NHS England and CCGs worth£128,474,162 that were at the time out to tender under the Section 75 procurement regulations in the 2012 Health & Social Care Act.
• NHS England tried tostop Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust opposing its controversial decision to let a private firm take charge of cancer scanning