Is it slippery slope to privatisation?

AS a short-term fix, using the private sector to ease pressures on the NHS may seem attractive. The procedures they are called upon to carry out are sometimes called routine. In fact, they are anything but for those patients waiting for them.

Sore knees and hips, painful hernias and cataract-blurred vision are not life-threatening, but they can make life very miserable for those who have operations cancelled or who are at the end of a long waiting list.

Patients just want to get well – to have a new knee so they can take a stroll, or new cataracts which allow them to read their grandchildren a story. Maybe they have not been able to work due to a hernia and cannot wait to go back.

People are glad to get on with their lives and are grateful to the medical staff who cared for them. Many won’t think about whether the hand which wields the scalpel or dishes out the pills is employed directly by the NHS, or indirectly through a private company.

While our campaign group Doctors For The NHS accepts private sector involvement is necessary – to deal with a sudden staff shortage, say – no one should be fooled. Every penny spent in the private sector is a penny not spent on long-term structural change to ensure our NHS is fit for the future.

There is a danger the public sector becomes too used to relying on private firms. A danger that once private providers get a toehold, the more they are likely to be used. Their use becomes entrenched and inescapable.

While we all want to see patients treated quickly, I think most people are also reluctant to see money which could be used to improve the NHS in the long term diverted to line company pockets. Business has different interests from public healthcare. While they want to do a good job for people they treat, they must also satisfy their shareholders.

It is crucial that the NHS retains control. If it doesn’t, then we have private healthcare – and I don’t think many people would be happy with that.

It is all very well to say that private firms are to be used only in the short term, but it is very difficult to work out if this is the slippery slope to privatisation. Once that’s under way, it is very difficult to see how you can begin to disentangle it.