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POTENTIAL reforms to the NHS will not reduce the role of private firms in healthcare unless Cameron-era privatisation policies are scrapped completely, campaigners warned today.
The government is planning to give ministers more control over NHS England with new laws to block the closure of hospitals and centralise decision-making, according to a leaked draft white paper.
The proposals would reportedly reduce the role of the private sector in the healthcare service, reversing legislation introduced by former PM David Cameron’s administration, which gave clinicians control over budgets and encourages competition with the private sector.
Instead, the new policy would see the NHS and local councils running services and encourage them to work together more effectively.
In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
Reversing outsourcing is the pre-election promise the government must honour, says Unison general secretary CHRISTINA McANEA


