Resist the first wave of privatisation masquerading as Patient Choice. Write to NHS Sheffield via the weblink below

At Andrew Lansley's instructions, NHS Sheffield and the other South Yorkshire PCTs are running a consultation (lasting about 10 days) to find three community services to be put out to tender from Any Qualified Provider.   

From a list of eight possibilities suggested by the Department of Health (covering about £1 billion of NHS expenditure nationally), NHS Sheffield has selected two:  Diagnostic Tests (such as ultrasound, MRI and CT Scans) closer to home; and Physiotherapy Services to treat back and neck pain.   The short list is completed with the addition of three others: services to help with the self-management of Long Term Conditions; Community Chemotherapy, including home chemotherapy; Dementia Care/ Memory Services.

Although some of the services selected could be provided or differently or are new approaches, the money will be going out of the public purse often to large profit making companies who can offer the best economies.  The government claims that there will be cost savings, but these will be achieved through poorer working conditions or sometimes even because regulations are biased towards the private sector.

The whole scheme is fraught with dangers.  By and large patients want a good service, not a lot of complicated choices.  For most of us it is hard enough to decide whether to have a particular treatment, let alone who is going to provide it.  There is also an increasing risk that doctors will have conflicts of interest because they have financial interests in local providers or may even want to offer services from their own surgeries for a fee. If Lansley’s reforms weren’t looming over everyone, it might be easier to do some limited experiments especially around home-based services, but this is the thin end of the wedge. We must write in now with our protests.

We urge people in South Yorkshire who oppose the privatisation of the NHS by stealth to tell the PCTs what they think on or before 12^th October by using the South Yorkshire/Bassetlaw PCTs questionnaire which you can find at http://bit.ly/n6pIUA. 

Even writing Don’t Do This will have to count but the questions are broad enough for you to put in your own opinions about the whole exercise.  NHS Sheffield wants to know:

a)      If you think there are any services on this list for which patients would NOT benefit from being able to choose who delivers their service

b)      If you think there are any health services that would benefit from this approach that are not on our current list

c)       How do you think having choice like this might benefit patients?

d)      Any other comments/ concerns you want to raise with us about this