Health matters / FRFI 234 Aug/Sep 2013
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- Created: Thursday, 08 August 2013 15:05
- Written by FRFI
As the NHS descends into chaos, the government knows who to blame: uncaring nurses, greedy doctors, poor management, negligent hospitals, patients who do not look after themselves, old people, inaccessible GP services – anything but the tightening squeeze on the NHS budget and the burden of the Health and Social Care Act. In an orchestrated campaign to denigrate the NHS as a public service, the Department of Health leaked a report into the quality of care and treatment provided by 14 hospital trusts in England to the press in advance of its publication. The result was hysterical and lying headlines claiming that ‘13,000 died needlessly at 14 worst NHS trusts’ (Sunday Telegraph).
On 10 June Southern Cross Healthcare, the largest provider of residential care in Britain, announced that it will ‘surrender control’ of 132 of its 754 care homes, handing over the homes and their residents to landlords to deal with as they see fit. The company’s financial crisis threaten the security of the company’s 31,000 vulnerable residents. It is the consequence of a trend which has seen care providers bought up by private equity companies seeking a quick profit. In it we can see what will happen if the ConDem Coalition succeed in breaking up the NHS.
