‘Privatisation’ and patient

The primary health care market has been the subject of much debate this month, following the portentous news that the first wave of deals have been signed to allow private healthcare companies to run general practitioner (GP) services in the UK — a market estimated to be worth around £150 million over the next five years.

The idea that the private health sector is getting ready to monopolise the market, as we have seen with care homes, has led to the assumption that ‘once these firms are in place, they will destabilise the local GP network’. Paul Evans of Keep Our NHS Public, has expressed concerns that these companies ‘may well compete for patients and discriminate against the ones with the most complex needs. That is not the way we want care to go’.

In addition, GPs are reported to have reacted uneasily to the news, expressing fears that they lack the financial backing to compete against profit driven business.

Care UK, the London-listed private health provider, is the first to sign a deal, agreeing a five-year contract worth in excess of £1 million each year with Barking and Dagenham primary care trust — having beaten up to four other bidders.

Geoff Benn of Care UK reportedly rubbished the idea that this represents ‘the privatisation of the NHS’ as others had claimed, preferring to focus on the opportunity for ‘firms and current NHS doctors to work together’.

More deals are expected to follow an important judicial review of one such contract with United Health Europe and could open up significant opportunities for healthcare specialists in the near future.