A petition is calling on the government to drop plans that some say mean the privatisation of our NHS. But time is running out; the deadline is 26 October. So, you know what to do: get signing.

You own the NHS…

The anti-privatisation campaign group We Own It is running a petition about Integrated Care Providers (ICPs). These are part of the government’s new blueprint for NHS services. As the King’s Fund notes:

(ICPs) are alliances of NHS providers that work together to deliver care by agreeing to collaborate rather than compete. These providers include hospitals, community services, mental health services and GPs. Social care and independent and third sector providers may also be involved… Their aim is to integrate care around the populations served… working in partnership and in some cases pooling budgets. In some areas an NHS trust acts as the lead provider in integrating care, while in others alliance contracts have been used to bring organisations and services together.

…but not for long?

But ICPs are contentious. Because some people see them as the mass sell-off of NHS services. As the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public says:

[ICPs] would control spend and rationing of healthcare for populations of up to 500,000. These huge contracts will be eminently open to the private sector to compete for. [They] could see fragments of the NHS managed by non-NHS, non-statutory and therefore less accountable bodies. They are the embodiment of government plans to disperse the NHS and its staff, drive down public funding, promote private contracts and put cost limits and profit before patient safety.

Overall, Keep Our NHS Public says that ICPs will:

Dis-integrate the NHS.

Give control to non-NHS bodies potentially beyond scrutiny.

Threaten public accountability.

Hand over control to these non-NHS bodies for 10-15 years.

Manage multi-billion-pound contracts for blocks of 500,000 population.

Open the door to private companies winning these contracts.

So, the group has created this short film about ICPs:

Get signing

We Own It, who started this petition, told The Canary:

This close to Halloween, we’re calling on the government to stick to carving pumpkins. And to keep its carving knives far away from our NHS. Its new reorganisation plans would put outsourcing and fragmentation at the very heart of our NHS; opening the door to more privatisation. We won’t stand by as our NHS is hacked to pieces for the benefit of private companies. And neither will the thousands of people who have signed our petition against the new ICP contracts.

By 12.00pm on Wednesday 24 October it had over 26,000 signatures. But it closes on 26 October. So now – it just needs yours. C’mon, Canary readers. You know what to do.

Get Involved!

– Sign the stop ICPs petition.

– Support We Own It and Keep Our NHS Public.

Featured image via KONP – YouTube