NHS 'Brand' Could be Sold Abroad to Generate Income, says Government

Government suggests service could learn from the lucrative success of US firms which have established themselves abroad

Hospitals are to be encouraged by the government to sell their services abroad, setting up clinics with the famous NHS brand to pull in much-needed cash for the health service from overseas.

The scheme – which has been put together by the Department of Health (DH) and the UK Trade and Investment department (UKTI) – attracted immediate criticism from the Patients Association, concerned that in times of financial stringency at home, establishing overseas clinics would be a distraction too far and could undermine standards at home.

But the government points to clinics that already exist, run by big-name NHS trusts with a reputation around the world, such as Moorfields Eye Hospital and Great Ormond Street children's hospital in the Middle East. The government thinks there could be lucrative possibilities for NHS-standard healthcare services in growing markets such as India and China.

It also points to work that has already been undertaken in Libya by an NHS ambulance trust, which is helping to set up emergency services, while Virgin healthcare, with NHS GPs, is in discussions with Abu Dhabi about the provision of primary healthcare services.

UKTI and the DH think that the NHS could learn from the success of some of the major American brands, such as the private Mayo clinics and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, which have established themselves abroad.

The health minister Anne Milton said the NHS would benefit and not suffer from the diversification.

"This is good news for NHS patients, who will get better services at their local hospital as a result of the work the NHS is doing abroad and the extra investment that will generate," she said.

"This is also good news for the economy, which will benefit from the extra jobs and revenue created by our highly successful life sciences industries as they trade more across the globe.

"The NHS has a world class reputation and this exciting development will make the most of that to deliver real benefits for both patients and taxpayers."

But critics of the healthcare reforms, already alarmed at the increased opportunity for private companies to take over parts of the NHS, are unlikely to feel comfortable about NHS hospitals drumming up private custom overseas.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, told the Independent: "The guiding principle of the NHS must be to ensure that outcomes and care for patients comes before profits.

"At a time of huge upheaval in the health service, when waiting times are rising and trusts are being asked to make £20 billion of efficiency savings, this is another concerning distraction. The priority of the government, hospital trusts and clinicians should be NHS patients."

The DH said there would be very careful oversight of any clinics set up by the NHS in other countries by a board newly constituted by the DH and UKTI called Healthcare UK. "Any activity proposed by NHS Trusts will be overseen by Healthcare UK," said a spokesman, insisting that standards of healthcare at home would not be compromised. The board is said to be recruiting a managing director at a salary of £100,000 to encourage NHS Trusts to move into the foreign market.

Government can't print its own money, it borrows it from another company that doesn't have it in the first place but is allowed to charge for it (which government gave it permission to do in the first place) and then it comes up with the idea it thinks is smart to sell its services abroad to make enough money it hopes to pay for the charges it incurred to generate the money it required for the service in the first place.

Someone please tell me the world is not that fucked up...

I was chatting with my daughter today, (she's pretty smart btw), and touched, (ok, went on at length), on how there is not now, never has been, or ever will be, enough money in the world to pay these fictitious debts and she began by looking at me like I was having a stroke or something, then you could see the penny drop.
"So why are we pissing about with all this bailout nonsense then, it's knackered beyond repair? These bastards are just grabbing what they can before the roof caves in eh?"

I sat back and sipped my tea knowing my work was done for today.

That's good. Hopefully the penny might drop with some others at some point.

wake_up_bomb wrote: I genuinely believe that is the crux of the matter WUB, the majority of the people will take the attitude of
"Oh all that banking stuff is way beyond me, too complicated to get a grip on what's really happening."
Yeah and therein lies the problem and the scam. You're supposed to be confused and helpless so you keep playing and do nothing!
The difference is that most of us here have figured that these financial instruments are playing pied piper tunes.
We are still very much in the minority though. (That is not some arrogant, uppity statement btw).

This is probably the best indicator, (I'm aware of), on just how fucked it all is..... https://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock

and the circulation of the Economist is only ....

Digital circulation
Circulation: 100,000

Worldwide
The Economist
2012 Circulation : 1,654,948
Data sourced from The Economist

Sorry WUB, I didn't intend to derail this NHS brand topic.
Apologies mate. I'll desist now.