NHS Outsourcing and Privatisation

Debate between Tim Loughton and Jonathan Ashworth

Wednesday 23rd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Ashworth]

The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) seems so desperately keen that I will take his intervention and then I will hear from Ashfield and make some progress.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

I am really grateful to the shadow Minister. Under the last Labour Government, before Worthing became the outstanding hospital it is now, there was a long list of patients requiring hip and knee replacements. To speed up the list, the hospital contracted with a local private hospital. Those patients were treated much more speedily, at least to the same quality, and actually at a lower cost per patient than if it had been done in-house— and, of course, the patients did not have to pay a penny themselves. Is that the sort of privatisation the hon. Gentleman so opposes?

[Jonathan Ashworth]

I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that no, it is not. I agree with the Secretary of State that the

“use of the independent sector to bring waiting times down and raise standards is not privatisation.”

They were the words of the Secretary of State when he spoke at his own party conference the other year. The Labour Government did spot-purchase from the private sector to bring down the huge waiting lists that we inherited in 1997; but our concern is about contracts for delivery of healthcare services being handed out to private sector providers who not only provide poor quality to patients but give the taxpayer a poor deal. It is a different situation.