“I believe that an existential battle to save the NHS may well have started and we must mobilise to win that fight.”
By Ian Lavery MP
It is often said that the NHS is Labour’s finest achievement, and, frankly, it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment. As a manifestation of socialist principles it is hard to beat. A universal service that treats everyone equally regardless of class and wealth, with the sole aim of collective wellbeing, is something of which we should be proud. But, if the private health care sector, motivated primarily by profit, is allowed to play an increasing role within the NHS it will undoubtedly weaken the NHS’s ability to continue to abide by its founding principles
The Health Secretary said in an interview in The Guardian back in April 2024 that his long-term aim “was for the NHS not to rely on private care at all”. He hit out at “middle class lefties who put ideological purity above patient care”. As a former miner I am not really a “middle class lefty”, but I fear that the recently announced increased use of the private sector in delivering NHS services will eventually lead to a dependency upon the private sector that will negatively affect patient care.
There is evidence of this decline already. In a 2024 survey The Royal College of Ophthalmologists found that nearly 70% of Clinical Leads in NHS Ophthalmology Departments said the increase in the use of private sector provision had had a negative impact on patient care. For example, the percentage of cataract surgeries performed in the private sector has gone from 21% in 2018 to 59% in 2022. These Heads of NHS Ophthalmology Departments said the increase in private sector involvement was negatively affecting their funding, and consequently, their ability to provide a comprehensive service. Most strikingly, the majority said that they were experiencing problems with workforce availability, because, obviously, their NHS doctors, etc., were spending too much time earning more moonlighting in private hospitals. How can you provide a comprehensive service when your doctors are at the private facility across town a great deal of the time?
This parasitic private sector dependency on NHS clinicians has been discussed endlessly and those in Government are very aware of it. Would it not be more logical to put the money that is going to go to private health companies into the NHS instead? The NHS would provide more per pound spent as a slice of this funding would not be going to the private equity and asset management billionaires. Statistics reveal that during the Blair Government, NHS orthopaedic surgeries cost 11% more. In the face of such facts, is it perhaps possible that it is actually the Government that is making policy based on an ideological prejudice in favour of the private sector? Could it be that it is not the “middle class lefties” that those concerned about patient care should worry about; the influence of the ultra-wealthy financial speculators behind private health should be the real source of anxiety.
The close links between the Government and the private health sector are very disturbing. When members of the previous Labour Government with very close links to the private health sector are given important policy making roles within the Department of Health, one could be forgiven for concluding that this is an indication of the direction of travel. I’m afraid it is impossible to ignore the donations given by the private health sector to prominent members of our Government.
To be fair, I consider that some in the Labour Cabinet may genuinely believe that a “mixed economy” approach is the best way to make the NHS fit for the future. I also accept that years of underfunding means that there will be equipment such as scanners in the private sector that the NHS needs to have access to in order to get the waiting lists down. Nevertheless, the recent contracts worth billions of pounds are not short term. My concern is that this trend will eventually lead to a dependency on the private sector that tips the balance of power and erodes the socialist foundations of our finest achievement.
I suspect that international investors sense that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the NHS and will do what they can to make it an early demise.
There are worrying signs that the outriders for the destruction of the NHS have arrived. Daily Mail headlines about polls showing that people would rather have a well run easily accessible GP service rather than a free one are ominous.
It does not have to be this way. There are viable public sector solutions as shown by the NHS Trusts who have achieved good results through bringing back in house services previously handed over to the private sector. The last Labour Government established that increased funding can turn around the NHS, as long as those in power have the political will to obtain that funding. I believe that an existential battle to save the NHS may well have started and we must mobilise to win that fight. Any Labour Government that is complicit in its destruction, whether through miscalculation or design, is not really a Labour Government at all.
- Ian Lavery is the MP for Blyth & Ashington. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X and Bluesky.
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