UNISON OUR PATIENTS FOOD COMES BEFORE RIP RPH

Socialist Resistance no38 | page 5

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

the modern NHS-run treatment centre established by Trust in NW London, is to be mothballed - at a cost of £4£5m a year - to stem operating losses.

NHS treatment centres are only paid per case, so if the system steers patients elsewhere for treatment (as has happened at Ravenscourt Park), they run half empty and carry a loss.

No matter how many or how few patients are treated in New Labour's network of private (Independent Sector) treatment centres, their "play or pay" contract guarantees full payment for years ahead.

Ironically, NHS units are not allowed to apply for the treatment centre contracts: ministers have insisted that they should be carved up between the various private firms.

So while creating no genuine competition, the government's policy ensures that any cuts and losses will fall exclusively on the public sector... while the private sector is given a license to print money. www.keepournhspublic.com www.healthemergency.org.uk