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Hospitals 'face big job cuts as £85m diverted'
Simon McGee Political Editor NHS HOSPITALS across South Yorkshire face financial chaos as £85m in funding is diverted to pay private companies to treat patients.
It is claimed the "privatisation" will lead to huge job losses at the area's five hospitals and health bosses say their ability to provide emergency services will be hampered by the instruction from the Department of Health.
It is understood the same order has been given to West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority, which was told to ensure its primary care trusts find more work for the private sector.
Health chiefs at Barnsley Hospital, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals, Rotherham Hospital and Sheffield's Children's and teaching hospitals have warned Ministers that redirecting 17m from their annual budgets over five years will jeopardise their performance as elite foundation trusts.
South Yorkshire MPs have also hit out at the Government's order, which will see seven private treatment centres built and run with the money earmarked for NHS hospitals.
One furious backbencher said last night that it was
evidence of the "blatant privatisation of the health service".
Use of the private sector to help cut waiting lists and take the pressure off NHS hospitals has accelerated in recent years, and now Ministers are keen to boost the provision of independent treatment centres so patients have more "choice" between healthcare providers.
Private treatment centres in South Yorkshire already undertake 3.2m-worth of NHS-funded operations a year, but the new order means this will now go up to 20m for each of the five years from 2008.
Senior managers at the affected hospitals have stressed: "It is not new money, but substitutes activity already undertaken in the NHS."
The five hospital trust chiefs have written to Health Minister Lord Warner setting out their concerns.
Barnsley, which is already struggling to cope with a 1.5m budget deficit, will lose 3m a year of funding, Doncaster will lose 4m, Rotherham will lose 3m and Sheffield's two hospitals will lose 10m between them.
A briefing note drawn up by Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals chief executive Nigel Clifton outlines its case against the Government's decision.
It argues South Yorkshire already has four private treatment centres, with two more nearby in north Derbyshire, as well as five NHS hospitals, and suggests patients already have "access to considerable choice from a plurality of innovative and attractive providers".
The paper also states that even some Whitehall officials have agreed with this assessment.
"The Department of Health commercial directorate has acknowledged informally that South Yorkshire does not need additional capacity," it declares, and criticises a lack of consultation and evaluation.
The report also warns accident and emergency services could be hit hard because the hospitals might no longer be able to afford to continue providing a full complement of specialisms.
Mr Clifton told the Yorkshire Post: "Patients want choice, but the NHS must also ensure continuity of district general hospital services.
"Redirecting planned surgery to the independent sector could undermine the emergency services that only NHS hospitals and our skilled and dedicated staff can provide."
Kevin Barron, MP for Rother Valley and chairman of the powerful Commons health select committee, and Eric Ilsley, MP for Barnsley Central, will lead a delegation to see Lord Warner about the move later this month.
Mr Ilsley branded the move "creeping privatisation".
"How can you look at it any other way?," he said. "If you're transferring money from the state sector to the private sector, cutting money from NHS hospitals, it is effectively privatising the health service.
"And massive cutbacks can only mean one thing: massive job losses."
Rotherham MP Denis MacShane, a former Minister, added: "I'm all in favour of independent treatment but existing hospital budgets should not be cut to pay for them."
The Department of Health insisted its decision was based on sound evidence and was designed to shake up existing provision.
"Our aim is to develop services that better suit the needs of today's patients rather than services which have developed in the past around particular institutions," it said.
"We believe this independent sector procurement will provide patients with access to high-quality and innovative services that will challenge the status quo and provide the stimulus for NHS services to be more patient-focused. Where this challenges poor local services, this will be a consequence of choice putting patients in control, not the extended use of the independent sector."
South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority backed the Government's order.
Comment: Page 10.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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