Following the enforced tendering of services, the private sector is over the moon. Companies such as Circle Healthcare, Virgin Care, Bupa and Care UK are just a few of many companies who are set to gain £9bn worth of contracts.
According to research, this comes following the coalition encouraging competition in the health service.
NHS restructuring led to private companies winning contracts
NHS Support Federation’s analysis found that Bupa, Virgin Care and Care UK have won 131 contracts that amount to £2.6bn in worth, since the NHS’s Health and Social Care Act came into force in April of 2013.
Research indicates that if the private sector continues at this rate, it will gain at least £6.6bn of the £13bn other contracts that have been advertised but not yet awarded.
This would mean the private sector would own £9.2bn worth of major contracts as a result of the fallout caused due to ex-health secretary Andrew Lansley’s restructuring of the NHS, which according to a cabinet minister, was the coalition’s biggest mistake.
Dr Mark Porter, chair of council at the British Medical Association, said ‘Enforcing competition has not only fragmented services and compromised the delivery of high-quality care, but it is also diverting vital funding away from frontline services to costly, complicated tendering processes, highlighting just how counterproductive the reorganisation has been.’
