The Government has been accused of insulting doctors and other staff working for private providers of NHS care by introducing new rules on market testing.
The jibe follows new guidance to commissioners that NHS organisations must in future be designated the ‘preferred providers’ of care. The new policy was announced by health secretary Andy Burnham last month.
In a letter to PCTs and SHAs, NHS chief executive David Nicholson says existing providers must be given an opportunity to improve before others are given a chance to tender. It will be the job of the commissioner to test whether these services provide “best value and real quality”.
“This will ensure everyone knows where they stand and services will stand or fall on the quality of the services they provide,” says Nicholson.
Previous Department of Health policy has been that “any willing provider” should be considered when commissioning services.
David Worskett, director of the NHS Partners Network, the organisation that represents private providers working within the NHS, described the policy as a retrograde step.
He said: “It is worrying and insulting for staff working for private providers of NHS care - many of whom are on secondment from the NHS, who achieve productivity up to 30% higher and higher patient satisfaction - to be told they are not the preferred provider. I think that is actually a rather shabby way to treat these people.”
But he said staff should not fear for their jobs because the policy would fall foul of the principles of competition. “These rules make it absolutely clear that PCTs should not take a decision which restricts choice. If a contract were to be re-let to somebody else on grounds other than quality and cost then it would be an unjustified restriction of choice and could be referred the the Competition and Cooperation Panel and overturned.”
Worskett said the announcement had been more about politics and appeasing the unions than about healthcare. “The guidance is so vague and unclear and the concept so misguided that in reality PCTs will carry on making the right decision in terms of who the provider should be,” he declared.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley accused Andy Burnham of putting party politics above the best interests of patients.
Conservative Party policy is to open up the provider side of the NHS to a “proper” tendering process between NHS, the independent and charity sectors. “We think competition is the way to incentivise organisations to up their game,” said a spokesperson.
The BMA said the new guidance reinforcing the status of the NHS as preferred provider was a “positive sign” that the government was listening to their concerns about the increasing commercial involvement in the NHS.
But Dr Hamish Meldrum, BMA council chairman, warned: “There’s still a long way to go before we turn round the market philosophy that for so long now has been part of day-to-day working life in the NHS.”
Meanwhile, the only Scottish ISTC, which provides elective surgery to patients from three health boards in Angus, is being brought back under full NHS control.
Tags: Commissioning, ISTCs, Privatisation
