Published: 16 November 2009
So much for the NHS being Safe with Labour
Unite has said that Kingston Primary Care Trust’s (PCT) decision not to hold a staff ballot over proposals to create a social enterprise ‘rides rough shod over government policy’.
Unite, the largest union in the country, is fighting the PCT’s plans to hive off NHS services into a social enterprise, as it contravenes Health Secretary Andy Burnham’s recent policy announcement that the NHS is ‘the preferred provider’ for services.
Unite, along with the other staff side unions, had asked managers at the Surrey trust, which covers 150,000 people, to hold a ballot of staff, as to whether they are in favour of transferring to a social enterprise.
Unite Regional Officer, Peter Storey said:
“The joint unions have always stated their preference for NHS provision. The request for a ballot has been rejected out of hand and the intention is for the social enterprise to become a reality next month.
The right to request a social enterprise was made by the management without any involvement of the staff or unions.
Andy Burnham has already said that the NHS is the preferred provider of choice.
This means that outside providers, such as a social enterprise, can only be asked to tender if a trust is deemed to be failing and has not taken remedial measures.
Kingston PCT is now riding roughshod over government policy.
Services in Kingston are not failing, so why are we dismantling the NHS? The Kingston public now needs to get involved to save the NHS they value”.
Managers at Kingston PCT are pressing ahead with their plans for the social enterprise, which is a commercial organisation, one step removed from the NHS proper, that can win – and lose – contracts to provide services to the NHS for a limited period of time.
If the social enterprise loses its contracts to, for example, a North American private healthcare company in five years time, jobs could be lost and services to the Kingston public could become fragmented.
The ethos of a NHS providing a unified, joined-up service for patients could disappear.
There is also the issue about whether a social enterprise would pay VAT – a tax from which the NHS is currently exempt. Such an additional financial burden could question the whole viability of the social enterprise experiment.
Peter Storey continued:
“It is clear that social enterprises are a leap in the dark in terms of provision of services; the employment conditions and pensions of NHS staff that could be severely eroded, or even lost; and the viability of the financial model proposed, if VAT is charged on its services”.
Unite has welcomed the government’s statement, made in October 2009, ‘that the NHS is ‘the preferred provider’ of choice when it comes to delivering services, rather than private sector organisations’.
In his letter to the chief executives of the strategic health authorities and primary care trusts, NHS Chief Executive, David Nicholson said: ‘The NHS as the preferred provider is about getting the best care for patients and looking after the NHS staff who care for them. Our aim is to ensure that NHS staff are treated fairly and engaged in decisions.’
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