Peter Lazenby
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EXECUTIVES of firms draining cash out of the NHS are being appointed to new management boards that decide how to spend taxpayers’ money.
NHS have campaigners warned that the new management boards are “a recipe for privatisation” and are resisting the appointments.
So-called local integrated care boards (ICBs) are replacing clinical commissioning groups, which decide how taxpayers’ money is spent in the NHS and on what. The boards are being introduced under the Tories’ Health & Care Act, which became law in April.
Among them is the ICB running NHS services in Kent & Medway, where campaign group Save Our NHS in Kent (Sonik) is opposing the appointment of an executive from Connect Health Group to the board on the grounds of conflict of interest.
Sonik said Kent & Medway NHS paid the privateers almost £1.8m for musculoskeletal services between April 1 2020 and June 30 2022.
Sonik’s Carly Jeffrey said: “It is totally unacceptable to put people from companies that make money out of the NHS on the board in charge of our local NHS.
“It will result in unacceptable conflicts of interest. It will also inevitably increase the drive to privatise more of the NHS.”
Sonik said the new boards brought the threat of “potential corruption and the increasing drive to privatisation.”
Ms Jeffrey said: “How can board members representing private companies whose business models rely heavily — in some cases solely — on revenue from the NHS be trusted to show no bias?”
She said polls show the public are “sick of the poor service, higher costs and damaging outcomes from private providers in the NHS.”
“It’s outrageous: it’s no way to run our most crucial public services and it’s not what people want.
“Members of the board who are themselves in private companies will be naturally predisposed to more privatisation in the NHS, and that means putting profit before people. Our NHS should remain free, publicly provided and publicly owned.
“The board is light on clinicians and heavy on people whose priority is business and whose talents lie in ‘transitioning’ public services so that they benefit the private sector.”
Connect Health Group and Kent & Medway ICB were invited to comment.
