UNISON has today (Thursday) welcomed the decision by NHS England to shut the Strategic Projects Team (SPT) consultancy.
The union has called on the government to learn from mistakes made by the consultants in the past, and reverse the trend towards NHS privatisation.
UNISON head of health Christina McAnea said: “The SPT has been associated with many of the worst attempts at privatisation of the NHS in recent years.
“Failures, such as those in Cambridgeshire and at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, were nothing short of total disasters, and seriously affected the quality of patient care available to local people.
“We may still have the same secretary of state in Jeremy Hunt but the formation of a new government provides the perfect opportunity for ministers to step back, take a long hard look at the huge errors made by these consultants and learn from their mistakes.
“Every time a huge privatisation project fails, the taxpayer has to step in and pick up the pieces – using money which would be much better spent on patient care.
“The push for privatisation should be reversed. It’s time to end the damaging market approach to the NHS that was ushered in by the Health and Social Care Act.”
