Privatising the SERVICES of the NHS allows Tories to say that it remains “free at the point of use”. What is actually happening is that we are paying through the nose when we use the service by allowing those private companies to cream off profits for their directors and shareholders, moving excess profits to tax havens. This makes the service much more expensive to run but keeps rich investors very happy.
And it is the same with privatised social care – though here the same rich investors push up the direct costs to the service users.
“NHS spending on care provided by private companies has jumped by £700m to £3.1bn with non-NHS firms winning almost 70 per cent of tendered contracts in England last year.
Private care providers were awarded 267 out of a total of 386 contracts made available in 2016-17, including the seven highest value opportunities, worth £2.4bn. …”
East Devon Watch 