What could privatisation do to the NHS? Children's services show us

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Northerner

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One of the biggest questions about the next five years is whether the publicly owned and provided status of the NHS will be protected as Boris Johnson powers on with his Brexit timetable. The health service is one of the most emotive issues in British politics, and one of the few things that affects almost all the members of our society, from the poorest to the richest
NHS privatisation is not some far-off, theoretical possibility used for party political purposes. On the contrary, the private sector – and private equity in particular – has already shown that it can profit from the privatisation of public services. Children’s services are an important – and worrying – example.

Since David Cameron’s austerity policies began a decade ago, local authorities around the country have had to reduce capital costs, after they lost 60% of their central government funding. This often meant that maintaining facilities such as children’s homes was seen as unaffordable – and cutting them was far less controversial than doing the same with the NHS, for example. Shut down a hospital and there is uproar. Close down several children’s homes, and there is barely a mention of it in the local paper.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...hildrens-services-austerity-private-providers
 
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