From today's Sunday Express, via The Campaign for Public Ownership:
VIRGIN tycoon Sir Richard Branson is being courted by health chiefs planning to privatise hospital casualty units.
Tens of thousands of patients walking into Accident and Emergency departments could be treated by the private sector in sweeping reforms of the NHS.
Billionaire Branson and his 26-year-old daughter Holly, who recently qualified as a doctor, plan to bid to run the new generation of GP super-surgeries called polyclinics.
Health chiefs in north London have confirmed that a meeting was held with senior officials from Branson's fledgling firm Virgin Healthcare.
Discussions took place about closing four GP surgeries in Camden and merging them to form a polyclinic at University College Hospital, pictured right.
The clinic, in a disused casualty wing, would treat all emergency cases except those brought in by ambulance or referred by GPs ñ about 70,000 patients a year.
I'm sure the pro-NHS privatisation brigade will be ecstatic at this news. After all, Dr Branson has made such a good job of running Britain's privatised trains, hasn't he?
3 comments:
Any particular reason why you linked to an article that's seven years old?
I used Virgin trains quite regularly earlier this year, and the service was flat-out superb on every occasion.
Then again, I also used Heathrow Terminal 5 a month or so ago, and it's honestly the fastest, smoothest, most efficient experience I've ever had in an airport.
I'm guessing that in both cases senior-level heads were banged together very hard indeed after all the negative coverage, but because the media is far less interested in good news, the improvements went largely unnoticed except by people who directly benefited.
ok slapheads, here's a link on Virgin's wonderful record from February 2008, from that hard-line communist newspaper 'The Times'.
"The study, by fares analyst Barry Doe, found starkly different costs for each mile travelled in different parts of the country. South West Trains charges 30p a mile for standard open fares but FGW, National Express East Coast and Virgin charge 50-60p.
Virgin has raised standard fares by 135 per cent since privatisation and first class fares by 160 per cent.
Off-peak passengers on FGW, Virgin and East Midlands Trains pay 85 per cent more than in 1995."
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3365831.ece
Want to know why I think Holly Branson came to work at Virgin Healthcare?
I used to work for them and found out what they were really planning to do - I raised concerns and was forced into resigning.
On 30th June I wrote to Holly Branson at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital raising my concerns and asking her to intervene. Now she has gone to take a look at what is really happening.
Lets hope she has the courage to continue to do the right thing...
Read more at www.branson-pickle.com
Post a Comment