Private Maternity Contract – The thin end of the wedge
UNISON, the UK’s largest union, is warning that the maternity deal between
private company, One to One and NHS Wirral is the “thin end of the wedge”.
“The Government is moving steadily towards the privatisation of NHS
services” said Christina McAnea, UNISON Head of Health, adding that the
Government is wedded to promoting more private deals across the NHS. She
went on to say:
“Maternity services are for too important to be entrusted to unaccountable
private companies.
"Of course pregnant women want choice, but they want a genuine choice over
whether to have their baby in hospital or at home, or whether to do so by
conventional means or to use alternative methods such as water births.
“They don’t want an artificial choice between different types of providers,
being brought about not in the best interests of mothers and mothers to be,
but in the interests of a free market ideology that wants to undermine the
NHS.
“This is exactly the sort of initiative we can expect more of if the
government succeed in getting their massively dangerous Health and Social
Care Bill passed, with its commitment to a wholesale competitive
free-for-all.”
Ends
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