GP provider in financial turmoil
The digital health company Babylon Health is set to withdraw from the New York Stock Exchange and become a private company again as its leading creditor AlbaCore Capital LLP, takes … Read more
Patients will be able to use NHS app to opt for private hospital care
Sky News has reported on a report in The Times that patients will soon be able to use the NHS app to opt for private hospital treatment in an effort … Read more
Patients paying £550 an hour to see private GPs
The Guardian reports that patients are paying up to £550 an hour to see private GPs amid frustration at the delays many face getting an appointment with an NHS family doctor. Growing … Read more
Priory Group whistleblowers ‘concerned for patient safety’
Two former senior managers at The Priory Group, a large mental health provider, have told the BBC they had concerns about the safety of patients and staff. The whistleblowers claim … Read more
MPs question private sector contribution to NHS elective recovery
Two weeks ago, the Lowdown took a detailed look at the situation of the private healthcare sector. We were seeking to understand why – after 13 years of policies promoting privatisation and … Read more
Tory health minister’s wife works for private firm handed NHS contracts
The wife of a Neil O’Brien, a Conservative health minister, works for a private firm that has been handed NHS contracts, it has been revealed. Neil O’Brien’s spouse is GP engagement lead … Read more
NHS paid private firms £500m to ‘ease backlog’.
OpenDemocracy reports that the private hospital sector saw 6.6% fewer people in 2022 than 2019, despite lucrative contracts to fix wait lists. The government handed almost half a billion pounds … Read more
Hospital ‘left in unsafe condition’ by private contractor
The PFI contractor, Whittington Facilities Ltd, left a hospital ‘in an unsafe condition’ for nine months after a fire which required patients to be evacuated, a trust has claimed in … Read more
Sunak seeks powers to boost flagging private sector
According to a recent report in the (£paywalled) Times, Rishi Sunak’s so-called “elective recovery task force,” steered no doubt by its private sector participants, is planning new legislation this summer … Read more
Over a thousand ‘sexual safety incidents’ in a single 59-bed children’s unit
NHS figures analysed by The Independent have found that a single children’s mental health hospital with just 59 beds reported more than 1,600 “sexual safety incidents” in four years. The … Read more
Hospital at centre of rape and death inquiries to close after investigation by The Independent
A scandal-hit children’s mental health hospital will close months after an investigation by The Independent uncovered claims of poor care and systemic abuse. Taplow Manor hospital, in Maidenhead, was threatened with closure by the … Read more
‘Profiteering’ of Covid pandemic must never be repeated, world figures warn
The Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, former first lady of South Africa and Mozambique Graça Machel and former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon are among nearly 200 signatories to a letter calling on … Read more
MP’s daughter threatened to sue for VIP commission
The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation, has discovered that Victoria Aitken, daughter of the disgraced former Tory Cabinet Minister, Jonathan Aitken, threatened to sue a successful VIP PPE bidder … Read more
The Scandal of SubCos Revealed
A January HSJ article has confirmed what trade union representatives and Labour MPs have repeatedly argued: that the creation of ‘wholly owned’ sub companies by NHS Trusts (and FTs) was in almost every case, … Read more
Victory for campaigners fighting GP transfer to private company
Staff and patients at Withnell Health Centre have won their campaign, – followed recently inThe Lowdown), against Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), which has now agreed to … Read more
Trust accused of highlighting long NHS waits to promote its private hospital
HSJ has reported that Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation Trust has been accused of promoting its private hospital by highlighting the long NHS waiting times which it is supposed to … Read more
Firm won £25.8m PPE contract after Greg Hands approached by Tory activist
Luxe Lifestyle, a lifestyle company, was awarded a £25.8m government contract for PPE through the so-called VIP lane after the new Conservative chair, Greg Hands, was approached by a local Tory … Read more
Private firms run by NHS staff charging to cut waiting lists at their own hospitals
The Observer reports that some of the country’s most senior NHS clinicians are running private firms that offer to cut waiting lists at their own hospitals. Top consultants in Manchester, Sheffield and … Read more
Going private is no workforce strategy
With no long-term NHS workforce strategy on the horizon, the government’s default policy on slashing elective waiting lists – pushing more NHS patients towards private hospitals dependent on NHS-trained staff … Read more
Ontario’s lurch to privatisation – a warning to Labour
At the end of last year Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting decided to wind up Labour supporters and delight Telegraph readers by proposing increased use of the private … Read more
