Hospitals will close, tens of thousands of jobs will be axed and health services will become more expensive under the government’s radical NHS reforms, the country’s biggest union has warned.
Unite said the Health and Social Care Bill signalled the biggest re-organisation of the NHS in its history, turning patients into “consumers”, privatising hospital estates, changing the status of trusts by 2014 and threatening the ability of unions to protect staff.
Assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail told a press briefing in Parliament as MPs started the bill’s second reading in the Commons: “This bill will destroy the NHS. It will allow NHS staff, skills, buildings and resources to be snatched by profit-hungry companies.
“It will shove NHS patients to the back of the queue as private greed will leapfrog health need every time.
“It will open up huge ravines of inequality in our communities as GP businesses close their doors to those with costly care needs. It will encourage the sort of bloated rewards for the health privateers we see at the top end of banking.”
Ms Cartmail said her head was “spinning” because of some of the details in the 288-clause bill, warning there will be “no return” once the reforms are approved.
Documents published by Unite warned of “mass redundancies and departmental closures” if local trusts are in trouble, while assets could end up in private hands.
The cost of providing health services could be 14% higher under a private sector provider, despite assurances to the contrary from the government, said the union.
The documents also warned of “alarming” references to staff redundancy costs, suggesting this was a disadvantage rather than an advantage in attracting staff.
Unite claimed that the government might be prepared to let NHS hospitals go into administration to meet its political timetable and that hospitals will be forced to share operating theatres, brain scanners and other facilities with private health care providers on a “rota” system.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: “The only thing that’s bad news for patients is the constant scare-mongering taking place in discussion about changes to the health service.
“The bill will strengthen the NHS and deliver over £5bn by 2015 in savings to spend on NHS patient care.
“The simple facts are that as a result of our proposals, patients will be placed at the centre of the NHS, they will receive free care from a provider of their choice, and the system will be focused on delivering better outcomes and quality healthcare. That’s what matters to patients.”
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