Privatisation guinea-pig?
NHS Cambridgeshire and Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS are inviting third sector, private and NHS organisations...
...to bid for the seven-year franchise for a partner to provide the full range of clinical and non-clinical services. The UK’s largest trade union, Unite, which has 60,000 non-profit sector members, has warned that voluntary organisations are being used as the ‘Trojan Horse’ to break up the NHS.
Racheal Maskell, the union’s not for profit sector national officer told Caritas: ‘Charities are being lured into the market place and are completely vulnerable when it comes to financial stability in the current contract culture.’
She pointed out that organisations will become detached from the very people they are there to serve and highlighted the huge issue of pay differentials in the different types of organisation. She also saw the move putting life-saving services at risk.
When the NHS was founded in 1948 it was recognised that the role of charities was best served by ‘adding value’ to support services – not actually delivering them, as this ‘compromises their ability to be advocates for improvement’, she added.
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
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