25th August 2006

The Stroud District Green Party has welcomed the successful appeal to overturn the high court ruling allowing United Health Europe to run a GP surgery in Derbyshire. The Green Party hopes that this will act as a block to stem a potential flood of private companies taking over GP surgeries (i).

Martin Whiteside, Parliamentary spokesperson for Stroud District Green Party commented: "This ruling should make it harder for large corporations such as United Health to get further footholds in the NHS with minimal challenge or public consultation. Although most GP surgeries are run by independent contractors, they are firmly established as part of the NHS and are committed to its values – they are not large corporations whose only motive is profit."

Martin Whiteside continued: "Clinical care should be the motivating factor in healthcare delivery, not private profit. With private companies increasingly involved in the provision of care we can expect to see real problems with falling standards of care and increasing costs. Already locally we see services threatened with closure yet private companies are making billions from the NHS. The Green Party is the only major party opposed the privatisation of the NHS."


Notes:
(i) Pam Smith has today won her appeal to prevent a US healthcare corporation from running a GP surgery in Derbyshire. Lord Justices Keene and May quashed the selection of United Health Europe – the British arm of America’s biggest healthcare corporation – to run the practice, and ordered North Eastern Derbyshire primary care trust to start the tendering process from scratch. They also awarded Pam Smith 100 per cent of the costs. The decision is a stunning victory for a pensioner who dared to stand up to the might of the government, the NHS and a multi-national corporation. The Department of Health had viewed the case so seriously it intervened in the proceedings, arguing against its own rhetoric of patient choice that there was no need to consult the community. It is a blow for the government’s reform programme of bringing in private companies to run GP services, and may discourage other private companies from involvement in the scheme. The case provides a precedent for other communities facing similar situations. It has established that patients have a legal right to be involved and consulted on plans for changes. In a number of other cases, communities have been opposed to the notion of profit-making companies running their family doctor surgeries.

See more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5279022.stm