The best way to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis is to privatize part of NHS Professionals?

Despite frequent denials by the government of charges that they are out to privatize the National Health Service on a piecemeal basis, the Financial Times reports Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has asked Deloitte, the consulting firm, “to advise on an overhaul of NHS Professionals, which manages more than 60,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, a step that could lead to a part-privatization of the service.” The FT says “there are widespread concerns about the rates charged by some private operators. An investigation by the Daily Telegraph last year found agencies—of which there are more than 100 in the UK—charging anything from 11 per cent to 49 per cent in fees.” Barrie Brown, Unite national officer for health, said: “The mind boggles at the fact that health secretary Jeremy Hunt thinks the best way to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis facing the health service is to privatize part of NHS Professionals to a profit-hungry private firm.”