Health Care moves towards the Private Sector
- 17 Sep
The NHS is expecting cuts of £50bn as health care moves over to the private sector.
Around £20bn worth of contracts will be tendered out from the NHS in the next few years to private companies and according to reports by Catalyst, the NHS expected to face cost cuts of £50bn by 2020 as there are "significant opportunities" for private companies.
The private companies are expected to take over a range of services, from small clinics to entire hospitals.
The report says:
The private sector currently delivers a very small proportion of primary and secondary care. However, if the government is to manage funding pressures and achieve improved outcomes for patients this will need to increase. The Government will need to access the capital investment potential of the private sector and make use of alternative models of healthcare delivery which focus on the community and home and away from hospital care.
Areas such as primary care, community health services and commissioning support services are potentially worth billions of pounds.
The impact of the Health & Social Care Act on procurement, delivery channels and models is unclear. Nevertheless, the role of the private sector is increasing. If this is combined with the removal of barriers to higher participation, such as in primary care removing practice boundaries and goodwill on GP practices, investment would be boosted and the opportunity for the private sector to build business with scale will be considerable.Private firms can expect to increasing take more of the £8.3bn that is spent on GP services every year in England, as more services are expected to be provided closer to people homes instead of in hospitals.
In community healthcare, where Circle, Virgin Care and Serco have recently won deals totalling £700m, the private sector could deliver up to 20 per cent, or about £20bn, by 2020.
It is expected that the new clinical commissioning groups that come into effect from April next year will be buying services worth £1.3bn.
Justin Crowther, director at Catalyst and co-author of the report, said:
Despite many challenges, the private sector is increasingly providing healthcare services, whether paid for by the taxpayer or directly by consumers at the point of use. Whether this is to turn around underperforming hospitals, operate GP surgeries, deliver community services or create centres of excellence in areas such as pathology, [NHS] commissioners are increasingly using the skills and capital of the private sector.
Related articles
- 10 Mar
THE STATUS OF THE SOCIAL CARE SECTOR REQUIRES IMPROVEMENTs
It was also found that the social care sector has the following characteristics:Social care seems like an adjunct to the NHS instead of being an important service in its own right. While the...
- 29 Apr
Scottish Welfare Fund grants see a 13% rise in applications
Data from the Scottish Government has shown that the number of applications to councils under the Scottish Welfare Fund has increased by 13% in just the last year, reports The Courier.Over the most...
- 16 Jan
Local welfare assistance funds held back by councils
The Centre for Responsible Credit using Freedom of Information requests carried out a study which found that 127 local authorities spent 52.8% of their £148.5m sharing of the local welfare...
- 13 Jan
Landlord scheme has saved the NHS thousands of pounds
The groups - Oldham Council, Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Oldham Housing Investment Partnership - consist of 10 social landlords who co-invested in the ‘Warm Homes Oldham'...
- 05 Jan
Calls for NHS funding
Stevens also called for an end to the ‘boom-bust' approach. Stevens told the Financial Times he hoped for more annual funding in addition to the £2bn lifeline that the Chancellor, George Osborne,...
- 30 Dec
New Fundraising Campaign Launched by Hospital Charity
The campaign encourages its supporters to partake in its ‘Every £1 Counts' fundraiser by making a donation and sharing a ‘pound selfie' on Facebook and Twitter throughout January.The charity are...
- 08 Dec
Home care sector facing crisis due to workers’ wages
A study by contractor Mears and the Local Government Information Unit have reported that councils should ensure they pay providers to enable them to pay ‘at least' minimum wage salaries.Liberal...
- 06 Oct
Supported housing service for women and their children has received funding for community garden
Endeavour Housing Associaiton's Rainham House temporary accommodation service has been awarded funding for their Roots and Shoots garden project. Working in partnership with community allotment...
- 03 Oct
Social landlords urged to make do without grants
Speaking to Inside Housing at the Conservative Party conference this week, Mr Lewis said: "If housing associations want to survive without government funding, that's a good thing."He said it would...
- 02 Oct
Supporting People budget cut by £10m by the Welsh government
A draft budget shows the government announcing plans to cut the budget for Supporting People from £134.4m in 2014/15 to £124.4m in 2015/16 which is a drop of 7.4%, reports Inside Housing.Despite...
Responding to the DWP Consultation: Housing Benefit Reform - Supported Housing "I thought this briefing was very good and very useful. The presentation was clear, well argued and I always find Michael gives me food for thought even if I don't agree with everything he says. I really like the way he facilitates a discussion in the room and I learn as much from other participants as I do from the presenter which is always good. Right length, right tone." R.P. - Richmond Fellowship
