Your editorial on the privatisation of health (11 March) did a brilliant job of highlighting the negative impact on the NHS itself of outsourcing NHS surgery. I thought it was additionally useful for readers to know what the impact is on patients directly.
Oxford University analysis has shown a link between outsourcing and poorer quality care for patients. It shows that when services moved from public to private, staff-to-patient ratios declined and patients with more serious, less profitable to treat conditions were left out.
It is also worth noting in the context of private hospitals “helping” cut waiting lists, that private hospitals sent 550 of their patients to the NHS every month on average between 2016 and 2021. This hurts the budgets of NHS trusts and worsens the care available to people in NHS hospitals, which Oxford researchers have previously linked to the deaths of hundreds of people.
The business model of private hospitals is fairly transparent. They make billions from NHS contracts to provide surgery, but when things go badly they dump all the costs back on to the NHS.
We should fund our NHS directly to build up capacity and end these disastrous outsourcing deals. This is what our Pledge for the NHS campaign is asking politicians to do.
Johnbosco Nwogbo
Lead campaigner, We Own It
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