... the very fabric, ethos and future of the NHS are in jeopardy from relentless political assault. The government is implementing plans the Conservatives would scarcely have dared to suggest. The professionalism of doctors is undermined by ideological reforms, built on commercialism, competition, patronage and fear for survival, compounded by orchestrated adverse media publicity. And the huge increase in NHS spending has largely missed its intended target – the health of the nation – because of malignant control freakery over clinically irrelevant targets, grotesque waste on an unstoppable proliferating quangocracy, a manic dependence on organisational restructuring as a surrogate for clear thinking on public health priorities, a wide-eyed obsession with IT and management consultants, profligate waste on a "choice" agenda that few patients want or need, and a pathological dread of trusting clinicians. ... To many people, it is clear that the NHS is being taken over by big business and private healthcare teams, so money that could go towards clinical care is diverted to corporations and their shareholders. As Allyson Pollock has pointed out in her book, NHS plc, huge amounts are paid to large private firms for advice about PFI and independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs). Profits made by consortia involved in PFI are swollen by the scandalous practice of refinancing buildings, while cash-strapped hospitals must pay the mortgage for 30 years. ...

Guardian  30 June 2008