“The NHS will be shown no mercy" says Cameron health adviser

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Tamasin Cave

9 May 2011

'GPs won't have to turn to the private sector' to help with commissioning health services, said Andrew Lansley today in the Commons, trying to fend off accusations that the Tories are privatising the NHS with their reforms.

?The House knows my commitment to the NHS," he continued. ?I haven?t spent seven and a half years as shadow secretary and secretary of state to see the NHS undermined, or fragmented or privatised... That was never my intention. It is not my intention.?

Privatisation was ?never his intention?? Someone should tell that to Mark Britnell, a former high-flyer in the Department of Health, now global head of health at KPMG, and recent appointee to David Cameron?s ?kitchen cabinet? of health experts to advise on health service reform.

Just six months ago, Britnell told a conference of private healthcare executives1: ?In future, the NHS will be a state insurance provider not a state deliverer.?

In case there was any ambiguity in that, Britnell explained to conference delegates (in a session called 'Reform Revolution'):

?The NHS will be shown no mercy and the best time to take advantage of this will be in the next couple of years."

How could Britnell, who made it into the top ten of the ?100 most influential people in health ? last year - as well as into No.10 - have got Lansley so wrong?

(Ref 1: Mark Britnell was speaking at a conference in October 2010 organised by private equity firm, Apax Partners. Read the conference brochure, and his quote, here.

www.spinwatch.org/blogs-mainmenu-29/310-tamasin-cave/5435-the-nhs-will-be-shown-no-mercyq-says-cameron-health-adviser

So which healthcare model are these proposals of Lansley's based on? It's a fair enough question.

The patronising was entirely unnecessary by the way. I'm just interested in hearing about this amazing system that can do it better for less and still make stacks of profits for the private sector.

It's easy to knock the NHS, but it actually does an amazing job for rather a lot less money than many other countries. It's not perfect, but these proposals, if they go through, will see the biggest shake up of the NHS in it's history. That concerns many people, particularly those who work in healthcare. Why even Dave himself is asking for time to 'pause, listen and reflect'.

Wubbly - the is my reaction to rudeness!

I'm not going to debate Lansley's proposal - I've not read it in full & I'm no health service expert. But I do understand business and the advantages of allocating resources by the free market, compared to the 'central planning' model.

It's great if everyone decides the NHS is fine after all. Maybe the government will leave it alone and concentrate on sorting out the economy.

Apparently this guy isn't an advisor to the coalition but was an advisor to the Labour Government.

Competition Vs Collaboration in health

A well balanced blog post by Robert Peston on some of the ideas behind the health reform proposals.

wikolite Britnell was invited to join a group of senior health policy experts in Downing Street earlier this month as part of the coalition's listening exercise on the whilte paper. He has previously worked in the NHS and was involved in drawing up Labour's health reforms in 2000.