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NHS Managers Play Down Privatisation Fears
By
David Batty, The Guardian Unlimited
United
Kingdom
November 11, 2005
NHS managers today moved to quash fears that the private sector will take over the delivery of healthcare in the community.
In July the government announced plans to end the role of England's primary care trusts (PCTs) in providing a range of services from district nursing to physiotherapy.
The proposals drew condemnation from nursing and doctors' leaders and unions, leading the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to water down the proposals, saying PCTs, the local bodies that run community healthcare, would be allowed to keep providing some services.
The NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare managers, today said widescale privatisation of community healthcare was highly unlikely.
Its chief executive, Dr Gill Morgan, said she expected PCTs would only chose to contract out services where it was considered independent providers could deliver higher standards.
She said: "Moving all services out of PCTs would not make sense - there would be concerns over the fragmentation of care. But the government's current position leaves PCTs with the flexibility to find other providers for services the local NHS can't get up to scratch.
"My view is this will be for a relatively limited range of things - for example, sexual health services, which are already provided by the Terence Higgins Trust. It would not be surprising if a PCT said 'we're not very good at this is there anyone else who can do it better?'"
Dr Morgan said she anticipated that where services were contracted out, the voluntary sector would be just as likely to take them over than private providers.
But the British Medical Association said there was still a risk that the reforms would lead to wider privatisation of the NHS.
A spokeswoman urged ministers not to offer private firms preferential terms to run services, blocking family doctors from making a bid.
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