Author Archives: Grace Goodlad

A Liberal approach to a free market NHS?

By Grace Goodlad | 3rd October 2006 - 8:53 pm

StethoscopeOliver Letwin has hit the headlines again for his “no limits” approach to privatisation of the NHS.

This isn’t exactly a huge difference from what Labour are currently doing, with “Private Treatment Centres” being given growing volumes of work, PPP putting the NHS in debt to private investor capital, and huge volumes of privatisation of non-frontline services such as finance, logistics, catering, cleaning…

We all know the problems that privatised cleaning services have caused.  There are frequent, and sadly true, horror stories of dirty wards and horrific MRSA and related superbug infection rates – just this week a hospital in Patricia Hewitt’s own constituency has been hit, with tragic results for some of the unlucky patients.

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Posted in Op-eds | 13 Comments

Recent Comments

  • User AvatarAlex Sabine 17th May - 3:11am
    If the reports are to be believed, IDS has already dismissed this apparently back-of-the-envelope costing by Steve Hilton. That is hardly surprising since he has...
  • User AvatarElliot Bidgood 17th May - 1:42am
    Thanks for the information about the govt consultation, Carol, hadn't heard about that. Just filled it out.
  • User Avataralistair 17th May - 12:37am
    Where does Cameron get his advisors from, Coulson, Hilton? It's like some parallel valueless universe.
  • User AvatarRichard Dean 16th May - 11:49pm
    I wonder if we might all appreciate a bit of light entertainment at this stage of the debate? Here are the lyrics of “Visions of...
  • User AvatarNicola Prigg 16th May - 11:21pm
    Was his first speech to conference as leader recorded and put online anywhere?