A new map has exposed the “enormous number” of NHS services that have been privatised across the UK.
Each of the 2,495 pins on this UK map – released by Medic-led campaign group EveryDoctor – represents an outsourced healthcare service run by an external provider.
“Funnelling money into private companies” compromises healthcare, warned the group’s chief executive Dr Julia Patterson.
“NHS privatisation introduces a profit motive into the delivery of healthcare, and that’s bad for everyone apart from company shareholders,” she said. “If we want to rebuild the NHS, politicians need to support NHS staff properly to deliver excellent care to patients.”
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The London School of Economics has estimated that there are 53,000 private contracts within the NHS, worth around £29bn a year. These constitute about a fifth of the entire health service budget.
Why is the NHS in crisis?
After years of Tory underfunding, the NHS is in crisis. Around 7.61 million people are on elective waiting lists in England alone, and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that lengthy A&E waits killed around 300 people per week in 2023. An eye-watering 1.5 million patients in England waited 12 hours or more after arriving at A&E over the past year.