The BMA is urging the public to join its ‘Look After our NHS’ campaign against commercial companies providing NHS care in England.
Government policies have created a healthcare market where commercially-run firms can compete with existing NHS trusts and GP practices to provide NHS care. The BMA claims that this is having an adverse impact on many parts of the NHS in England.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said: “We want an NHS with patients, not profits, at its heart. The public values the NHS as a publicly provided, publicly funded service. Like doctors, they do not want vital funding to be diverted to shareholders.
“NHS staff see on a daily basis the waste of taxpayers’ money caused by this fixation with market ideology. Particularly as the public purse strings tighten, it is crucial that public money is no longer wasted on expensive commercial experiments.”
The campaign website has been revamped and the BMA plans to send ‘Look After our NHS’ campaign packs to each of its members in England – over 100,000 doctors and medical students.
Leaflets will also be distributed to patients in GP practices and hospitals, warning them that “your local GP practice, hospital or community health service could be run by a commercial, profit-driven company in the future”.
In response, the Department of Health has defended the use of private companies in delivering better services to patients. A DH spokesperson told the BBC: “Independent and third sector organisations were used successfully to get down waiting lists for operations and can make a contribution to this by helping to add capacity and increase patient choice.”