Agency sale plan stokes fears of NHS privatisation
THE Government is planning a sale of part of NHS Professionals, the agency that supplies nurses to hospitals across the country.
NHS Professionals will first be converted into a new, State-owned limited company. This process is on track to be finalised by March.
Once that is complete, the Government will look to sell a stake in the business to the private sector.
NHS Professionals is currently in consultations with staff and unions about the controversial move, which will fuel fears that the NHS is being slowly outsourced and privatised.
The plan was set out in the accompanying documents to Gordon Brown’s Smarter Government money-saving initiative, launched earlier this month.
Other assets put up for sale as part of the initiative include the Ordnance Survey, the Land Registry and the Tote, the computerised system that takes bets at racecourses.
The Government has tried and failed to sell the Tote several times since making it a manifesto pledge.
The assets are being put up for sale to help reduce the UK’s massive deficit.
For the year to March 2009, NHS Professionals saw its revenues rising 19.9 per cent to £287.6 million, while its operating loss was nearly halved to £10.3 million.