The pandemic has been a goldmine for some private contractors and management consultants. But while many in the private sector celebrate their new-found riches, the fiascos of failed private services have been exposed to millions.
Privatised test and trace systems have become a byword for failure, just as poor standards of hospital cleaning epitomised the failures of the first outsourced contracts in the 1980s.
The question is how health unions and campaigners can pool their knowledge and work together to develop the right publicity and information to show the folly and expose the waste and inefficiency of privatisation and outsourcing.
This conference will be prepared by seven Briefing Sheets giving background on current aspects of privatisation, and what we can learn from previous struggles as we fight to keep private hands off our NHS.
It will hear short introductions on each of the topics before breaking into workshops to consider and discuss priorities and various lines of argument to reach out to the wider, uninformed public.
Shadow Health Secretary JONATHAN ASHWORTH MP will respond to the presentations and outline the opposition view.
Streatham MP BELL RIBEIRO-ADDY will chair the opening session
- Privatisation – why it matters: – speaker: PAUL EVANS, NHS Support Federation and co-editor The Lowdown
- Billions wasted on PPE and Track and trace fiasco: – speaker: PASCALE ROBINSON, We Own It
- Lighthouse (and mega) Labs: bypassing the public sector: – speaker: IAN EVANS, Chair, Unite Healthcare Sciences National OPC
- The great consultancy boom from Covid to ICSs: – speaker: Dr SONIA ADESARA, NHS doctor
- NHS cash to the rescue for private hospitals: – speaker: DAVID ROWLAND, Centre for Health in the Public Interest
- Privatised staff as second class citizens – and the impact on the NHS: – speakers: JAMES ANTHONY, Vice President UNISON; JACALYN WILLIAMS acting national officer, Unite: and LOLA McEVOY, GMB
- Learning lessons past & present: developing popular arguments & accessible information: – speaker: JOHN LISTER, editor Health Campaigns Together & co-editor The Lowdown
