Privatising the NHS

The idea that the Conservative Party wishes to privatise the NHS has been with us for a long time. Here are some newspaper cuttings from the time of the long Tory government of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

1980: ‘Ron Curran, NUPE Scottish organiser said … “The Tories are depriving the service of the resources they require. First it was pay, now it is services, soon it will be jobs. The Government will then say the service has failed and they are passing it over to private enterprise. This has been a major concern of the Tories since before they came to power – to dismantle the NHS.”’ [i]

1981: ‘District health authorities will have to slash ten per cent from administrative costs to meet targets laid down by the Government, and spend the ten per cent on services for patients … Ken Forbes, secretary of the West Mercia branch of Nalgo, representing the Black Country, said they would fight any attempt to cut staff. Mr Forbes declared: “All the staff employed are needed to ensure that essential services are maintained and kept running efficiently. This is all part of the Government’s attempts to privatise the NHS.”’ [ii]

1982: ‘Not satisfied with the damage already inflicted on our health and education services, there is now talk of “privatising” the NHS and introducing yet more restrictions on access to higher education.’ – Andrew Kent, President, Vale Royal Teachers’ Association NUT [iii]

1983: ‘Unions representing Ulster’s NHS workers are expected to warn the Government and the province’s health boards that they will resist any attempt to privatise parts of the health service.’ [iv]

1984: ‘Derby South Labour MP Margaret Beckett has joined union officials in condemning proposals put forward by Professor Patrick Minford, a supporter of Mrs Thatcher. Prof Minford has drawn up a plan which includes selling off schools to private firms and privatising the NHS leaving everyone paying school fees and relying on medical insurance.’ [v]

1985: ‘Patients should come before profits, and cuts and privatisation of the NHS should be resisted with force – that’s the campaign to be fought by Lincoln health service shop steward.’ [vi]

1986: ‘Hospital workers in Scotland have rejected a Health Service pay offer … A union spokesman said the main stumbling block were the conditions attached, including job flexibility and new grading. He claimed the plan would lead to greater privatisation of the NHS.’ [vii]

1987: ‘Delegates [at the Scottish TUC Congress] carried a motion calling for an immediate increase in NHS resources by 3 per cent per year in real terms, the abolition of all NHS charges, and an end to the privatisation of NHS services.’ [viii]

1988: ‘[Kenneth] Clarke told the conference that the Government had never intended to privatise the NHS, but that it intended to establish a “mixed economy” in the health sector and to promote an internal market in which skills and resources were interchangeable.’ [ix]

1989: ‘The poll shows that most voters (68 per cent) do not think the National Health Service is safe in the hands of the Conservatives; they also believe the Government intends to privatise the NHS (69 per cent).’ [x]

1990: ‘The National Health Service got its own political party yesterday. The NHS Supporters Party … claimed that the Government is secretly planning to destabilise and privatise the NHS.’ [xi]

1991: ‘[John] Major is enthusiastic about the internal market in the health service. Self-governing hospital trusts, budgets held by general practitioners, and contracts with GPs which are directly linked to performance all have his firm backing. “We are not going to privatise the NHS but we are not going to leave it untouched,” one insider comments.’ [xii]

1992: ‘The Conservatives are trying to privatise the NHS.’ – Neil Kinnock [xiii]

1993: ‘Labour yesterday accused the Government of using lengthening waiting lists to privatise the NHS by stealth.’ [xiv]

1994: ‘Labour’s health spokeswoman Maria Fyfe said … “We have always said the Tories wanted to privatise the NHS through the back door.”’ [xv]

1995: ‘Virginia Bottomley became one of the least popular members of the Cabinet because the government’s policy is to fragment, commercialise and privatise our NHS.’ – Margaret Beckett [xvi]

1996: ‘Labour will halt the use of PFI as a ramp for privatisation … When a hospital is built by the private sector, owned by the private sector and run by the private sector, then that hospital has been privatised.’ – Robin Cook [xvii]

1997: ‘Health minister Alan Milburn said the Government saw the Private Finance Initiative introduced by the Conservatives two years ago as a “vital potential source of new investment for the NHS” … But he promised: “We will not privatise the NHS.”’ [xviii]

see also: