"George Osborne is determined to apply market economics to the NHS, no matter how damaging the consequences. The NHS is collapsing from the year on year de-funding it has sustained since 2010. I am in no doubt that this looks like success to this government as their health policies create greater market expansion opportunities for the insurance based private health sector. But in defence of my patients and all patients I am calling for this decision to be reversed. There is no acceptable reason to apply £60 million market rental to GPs and community hospitals, it will plunge them into ever greater financial difficulties.
The government's rationale is to put the PropCo in profit by taking rent from the funding it gives to the NHS to provide frontline services. We owned these properties, they were part of the NHS. There is no value, from a public service perspective, to put public property into a private company then charge the public for what it used to own itself. But there is great profit to be made from a future sale. Not for us, the public, we know that from experience, but for whichever company buys at the bargain basement price tag that Osborne sells for."
This is clever of Osborne. An even quicker way to bankrupt the NHS.
Who voted for this?
