There is an underground movement going on by the government in secretly privatising the NHS. Outwardly it appears no such thing is happening because the whole move is being done in nefarious way. Recently it has come to light that a new partnership between Amazon and the NHS has taken place where people can now get “expert health advice” from Amazon’s Alexa devices. With drastic NHS funding crisis, this does not augur well. The collaboration is part of a new government initiative called NHSX. This aims to make “more NHS services available to all patients through digital technology”.
The NHS is offering more than 20 contracts to private companies, despite health secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons health and social care committee: "I am going to be much more concrete. There is no privatisation of the NHS on my watch, and the integrated care contracts will go to public sector bodies to deliver the NHS in public hands." The data shows 21 NHS contracts worth £127m are currently out to tender - 19 of which have been put out since mid-February.
Many people questioned why, amid ongoing NHS cuts, staff shortages and a crisis in healthcare, the UK government has outsourced this service to a US company. In 2018, Amazon recorded multi-billion dollar revenue and profits, yet it has managed to avoid paying full taxes both in the UK and the US. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person on the planet, worth an estimated $121bn. Data protection and privacy becomes a problem also.
Mr Hancock should be true to his word and now block these latest NHS privatisation proposals.
The other alternative is a properly funded NHS. Therefore, the only way to get that is a general election and a change of government.
Baldev Sharma
Rayners Lane, Harrow
