Hospital trusts are spending millions of pounds setting up arm’s-length private companies, which health unions fear will turn staff transferred into them into “second-class employees”.
Fifteen trusts in England have already spent £3.2m between them creating wholly owned subsidiaries, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre trust on Merseyside, one of the NHS’s cancer hospitals, has spent the most – £661,335 – on setting up a firm called PropCare with the help of consultants Hill Dickinson and KPMG.
Gloucestershire Hospitals trust has spent £403,000 establishing Gloucestershire Managed Services, with a further £15,000 likely. The Royal Free trust in London has also used an estimated £400,000 of its budget, though its board has yet signed off the creation of the company involved.
Full Story; The Guardian, 16 April 2018
