A Freedom of Information (FOI) released by Labour shows some hospitals are benefiting from clinical commissioning group (CCG) rationing of common treatments.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham revealed that some hospital trusts are starting to offer patients the opportunity to self-fund certain treatments after the CCGs enforced rations.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) released by Labour shows some hospitals are benefiting from clinical commissioning group (CCG) rationing of common treatments.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham revealed that some hospital trusts are starting to offer patients the opportunity to self-fund certain treatments after the CCGs enforced rations.
For example, James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust offers self-funding options for ophthalmology, while their local CCG has put restrictions in place for cataract operations.
The FOI also revealed that £4.5 billion in NHS contracts were put out to market over the past year.
The contracts ranged from £800 million for elderly care services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to £210 million for adult mental health services in Bristol.
Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary said: "These figures reveal the frightening scale and pace of NHS privatisation since Cameron’s Health Act came in. It has mandated market testing on the NHS and placed it on a fast-track to fragmentation and privatisation.
"If we carry on down this path, market forces will eventually devour everything precious about the NHS. That is why Labour will repeal the Health & Social Care Act in the first Queen’s Speech of the next Labour government."
