The £9.2 billion of NHS budget given to private health providers last year, the highest levels reported, despite Matt Hancock’s pledge to reduce outsourcing of patient care. Virgin Care and the Priory mental health group were amongst those feeling the financial benefits. The £9.2 billion is a 5% increase on the previous year: private providers received £8.1 billion in 2014-15 and £8.77 billion in 2017-18. Matt Hancock said to MPs in January “there is no privatisation of the NHS on my watch”.
Director of NHS support federation, Paul Evans, said: “In response to criticism, failures and waste, the health secretary promised no further privatisation. But since then the outsourcing of NHS services has rolled on and more services have become reliant on the private sector to deliver their core services.”
Full story in The Guardian, 21 July 2019
