Symptoms of an ailing health service - The Guardian 8th January 2008

"For all the carping, at the age of 60, the NHS is looking in rude good health," says Polly Toynbee (January 4). In reality, the NHS is being commercialised beyond recognition; NHS services are being deliberately destabilised to establish a competitive market system incorporating for-profit private providers, in place of a planned system of public health care. Prior to 1997, the NHS was buying less than £200m a year of private treatment; this is estimated to have increased to £4bn by 2007. As much as 15% of cherry-picked elective surgery will be hived off to private hospitals, leaving NHS trusts to cover the complex and Cinderella services. PFI schemes worth more than £5bn have been completed since 1997, with another £12bn under negotiation - all of them locking trusts into costly, long-term leasehold deals.

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