According to We Own It, at a recent Parliamentary committee on the Health and Care Bill the government made a concession: ‘They said they agreed that “individuals with significant interests in private healthcare” should not be allowed to sit on NHS boards.’
There has been significant public pressure against that aspect of the Bill which allows private companies a seat on Integrated Care Boards, and hence a role in formulating not simply who gets to provide the care, but what sort of care is to be provided in the first place.
However the phrase ‘significant interests’ is open to very divergent interpretations. How is it to be measured? Is it based on how many shares the individual has? On what their position is within a private healthcare company?
The very limited ‘concession’ being made simply serves to underline the fact that the whole bill needs to be opposed root and branch. The danger is that some people will grasp at any measly little straw being offered, and flatter themselves that they have wrung concessions from the government.