Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds

Exclusive research reveals £1.6bn in profits extracted by private firms from NHS contracts, with MPs branding the scale 'scandalous'. | Contesto: cronaca

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• Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds

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Private companies providing healthcare and consultancy services to the National Health Service in England have extracted £1.6 billion in profits over the last two years, according to exclusive new research. The analysis, based on contracts worth a total of £12 billion, has ignited a political firestorm, with MPs condemning the profit-making levels as "scandalous" and demanding the government impose a statutory cap on the amount private firms can earn from the public health service. The scale of the financial flows has raised profound concerns that the NHS is being "taken for a ride." The research details how £2 billion of the £12 billion in contract value went to firms with ultimate owners based outside the United Kingdom. Of that £2 billion, a significant portion—£533 million—was directed to companies owned by individuals residing in offshore tax havens, including Jersey and the Cayman Islands, raising questions about the ultimate destination of public funds intended for patient care. Further scrutiny of the contracts reveals complex financial structures, particularly among firms owned by private equity groups. These companies used £353 million of their NHS-derived income to service interest payments on debts. This practice has drawn criticism from health policy experts, who argue it represents a leakage of scarce health service resources to service corporate leverage, rather than being reinvested in frontline clinical services or staff. The findings arrive amid a prolonged period of severe financial strain for the NHS, characterized by record waiting lists, staffing shortages, and constant pressure to find efficiency savings. The juxtaposition of systemic austerity within the public health system and substantial profit generation by external contractors is at the heart of the political outrage. Campaigners and some parliamentarians argue that every pound paid out in profit or interest is a pound not spent on nurses, doctors, equipment, or beds. The call for a profit cap is likely to reignite the long-standing and deeply ideological debate over the role of private enterprise in a publicly funded, taxpayer-owned health system. Proponents of integration argue...

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Categoria: cronaca