NHS privatisation

[ricardian]

Is the NHS really safe from privatisation?

Here’s the list of public services sold off on the cheap over the years:-
-- British Telecom (1984, 1991, 1993)
-- Sealink (1984)
-- Jaguar (1984)
-- Trustee Savings Bank (1985)
-- British Shipbuilders (1985-1989
-- British Airways Helicopters (1986)
-- British Gas (1986)
-- National Bus Company
-- Rolls-Royce (1987)
-- Royal Ordnance (1987)
-- British Airports Authority (1987)
-- Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted/Glasgow/Edinburgh/
Aberdeen/Prestwick Airports
-- Leyland Bus (1987)
-- British Airways (1987)
-- British Leyland (1987)
-- Leyland Trucks (1987)
-- Unipart (1987)
-- Rover Group (1988)
-- National Express (1988)
-- Municipal bus companies (1988–present - sold off individually)
-- British Steel (1988)
-- Travellers Fare (1988)
-- British Rail Engineering Limited (1989)
-- Harland and Wolff (1989)
-- Vale of Rheidol Railway (1989)
-- Water companies
-- Anglian Water (1989)
-- North West Water (1989)
-- Northumbrian Water (1989)
-- Severn Trent (1989)
-- South West Water (1989)
-- Southern Water (1989)
-- Thames Water (1989)
-- Welsh Water (1989)
-- Wessex Water (1989)
-- Yorkshire Water (1989)
-- National Grid (1990)
-- Regional electricity companies
-- East Midlands Electricity (1990)
-- Eastern Electricity (1990)
-- London Electricity (1990)
-- MANWEB (1990)
-- Midlands Electricity (1990)
-- Northern Electric (1990)
-- NORWEB (1990)
-- SEEBOARD (1990)
-- Southern Electric (1990)
-- SWALEC (1990)
-- SWEB Energy (1990)
-- Yorkshire Electricity (1990)
-- Girobank (1990)
-- Liverpool Airport (1990)
-- Independent Broadcasting Authority (1990)
-- Scottish Bus Group (1991)
-- National Power (1991, 1995)
-- Powergen (1991, 1995)
-- Scottish Hydro-Electric (1991)
-- Scottish Power (1991)
-- Severn Bridge (1992)
-- British Technology Group (1992)
-- Trust Ports (1992–1997 sold off individually)
-- East Midlands Airport (1993)
-- London Southend Airport (1993)
-- Birmingham Airport (1993 - 51%)
-- Northern Ireland Electricity (1993)
-- Atomic Weapons Establishment (1993)
-- Belfast International Airport (1994)
-- British Coal (1994)
-- London Buses (1994 - sold off individually)
-- Property Services Agency (1994)
-- British Rail (1994-97)
-- 3 rolling stock companies:
-- Angel Trains (1996)
-- Eversholt Leasing (1996)
-- Porterbrook (1996)
-- 6 design office units (1995-1997)
-- EWS (1996)
-- Freightliner (1996)
-- 6 track renewal units (1995 - 1997)
-- 7 infrastructure maintenance units (1995 - 1997)
-- 25 train operating companies (1996)
-- British Rail Research (1996)
-- British Rail Telecommunications (1995)
-- European Passenger Services (1996)
-- Railtrack (1996)
-- Red Star Parcels (1995)
-- Union Railways (1996)
-- Cardiff Airport (1995)
-- Bournemouth Airport (1995)
-- National Engineering Laboratory (1995
-- MoD housing portfolio (1996)
-- AEA Technology (1996)
-- British Energy (1996)
-- Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) (1996)
-- Laboratory of the Government Chemist (1996)
-- Chessington Computer Centre (1996)
-- Natural Resources Institute (1996)
-- Building Research Estab
-- BBC Transmission (1997 - now Arqiva)
-- Actis (2010 - 40%)
-- High Speed 1 (2010)
-- 75% of English secondary schools + thousands of primaries (2010- present)
-- BBC Audiobooks (2010)
-- BBC Magazines (2011)
-- Forensic Science Service (2011)
-- HMP Birmingham (2011)
-- The Tote (2011)
-- Northern Rock (2012)
-- British Waterways (2012)
-- Interpreter and Translation Services (2012)
-- Remploy (2012, 2013, 2015 sold off individually)
-- Air Sea Rescue (2013)
-- Blood Plasma Service (2013)
-- Fire Service College 13)
-- Royal Mail (2013, 2015)
-- Bio Products Laboratory (2013 - 80%)
-- Manchester Airports Group (2013 - 35%)
-- Student loans portfolios (2013 onward, numerous tranches)
-- Lloyds Banking Group (2013, 2014, 2015)
-- Behavioural Insights Team (2014 - 67%)
-- Constructionline (2015)
-- Defence Support Group (2015)
-- National Probation Service (2015)
-- Food and Environment Research Agency (2015 - 75%)
-- Dr Foster Intelligence (2015)
-- Royal Bank of Scotland Group (2015)
-- East Coast Trains (2015)
-- NEC Group (2015)
-- Government Pipelines and Storage System (2015)
-- UK stake in Eurostar International Limited (2015)
-- Green Investment Bank (2017)
Still believe the NHS is safe?

[unifoxos]

But who the hell would want to buy it? It's a black hole.

[llondel]

But who the hell would want to buy it? It's a black hole.

Not if they can convert it to the American model where they can charge 10x the price, and there's an entire industry (health insurance) set up as a middleman to siphon off even more from the population.

[Smeagol]

Why does everyone equate some form of privatisation of the NHS with the American model of health care? The NHS certainly needs 'root and branch' reform as its current state is parlous but there are European models which appear to work well which we could copy without importing something that only works for the well off from the USA.

[Boac]

What a co-incidence - the guy - Frank Hester - who had made the largest donation to Tory funds ever - just happens to run a software company which has the contract to provide computer services to the NHS, holding most peoples' records. It is called TPP. Unless you 'opted out' a while back, your medical records are in that system and available to anyone who is given access.