Patients before profit – to support local NHS hospitals

West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, is supporting the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust campaign to encourage patients to choose local NHS hospitals rather than private companies for their health services.

Mr George is warning that, if patients choose private hospitals and companies over local hospitals then local NHS services could be undermined and the future of local hospitals put in jeopardy.

Mr George has been raising issues with the Health Secretary and with Health chiefs since the passing of the Health and Social Care Act last year.

Mr George said:  “Some private health companies want to ‘cherry pick’ more profitable routine health work.  But every patient who chooses a private company over core NHS hospitals runs the risk of eroding the future of our local NHS hospitals.”

RCHT has circulated the  leaflet ‘Your NHS is changing – Please support Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust…’.

Mr George added:  “Not only does RCHT provide hearing, MRI and physiotherapy services, but private companies could also take vital orthopaedic work from RCHT which, for example, could have a detrimental impact on the future of St Michael’s Hospital in Hayle.”

Mr George has been pressing the Health Secretary to make sure that the “tariff” system – which determines the pay for each procedure – reflects the higher costs which NHS hospitals have to meet when taking on the more complex and challenging case mix and the more expensive on-costs in contrast to private companies.

 

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