Our Map of Privatisation & Outsourcing
Privatisation has been creeping into the NHS for three decades.
Our map unmasks the thousands of non-NHS providers providing NHS-funded healthcare across the UK every single day.
It’s shocking.
Please Note: This is a ‘living’ map. It is being updated regularly, as more data is received or uncovered and completes verification process.
Notes:
The blue pins* show constituencies represented by MPs who have interests in, or have been supported by, private healthcare organisations or by individuals with interests in such organisations
NHS Privatisation - FAQs
How have you got the data for this?
Our main source of information was NHS England’s provider directory and registers of licensed healthcare providers; last updated on the 24th February 2022.
We also visited each provider’s website (linked to in each record) to locate the postcodes of their individual locations.
Where this information was not available, we contacted the providers directly to request it; we are waiting to hear from all of them.
Services that cover an area are pinned at the nearest train station.
We also had many examples sent in by members of the public which we verified before adding.
Why do you oppose NHS privatisation + outsourcing?
Privatisation harms patients.
Research by the University of Oxford published in The Lancet, found conclusively that “Private-sector outsourcing corresponded with significantly increased rates of treatable mortality”.
It also impacts sustainable long-term caring relationships between properly supported NHS staff and their patients.
Shareholders shouldn’t be part of our public healthcare conversations and private companies should not be skimming a profit from the NHS.
Privatisation + outsourcing also fragments the service across the country creating a so-called ‘postcode lottery’, where patients receive differing levels of care and access to treatment and services, based on their location.
We believe everyone, no matter where they live, should be able to access the same high standards of care.
Why have you included some organisations, like charities, that don’t make profit?
While the charities and not-for-profit organisations do not profit from the services they provide, they are non-NHS providers.
The UK has an array of fantastic health-related charities, and we have no criticism of the charities.
However on a systemic basis, the move to provide NHS services by non-NHS providers disrupts health infrastructure and fragments the service.
The NHS is a publicly funded public health service. EveryDoctor believes strongly that as such, the NHS should be funded, run and delivered by the public sector.
Why is my GP on this map?
The GPs listed on this map are mentioned for one of three reasons.
1. They are listed in NHS England’s provider directory and registers of licensed healthcare providers in the ‘Independent Providers’ document.
2. They are managed by a private company. In this case, the provider will be detailed in the panel on the left hand side.
3. They are the location of 3rd party provider services. In these cases, the provider and service will be detailed in the panel on the left.
I’ve found an error, how can this be corrected?
MPs Privatisation Links- FAQs
Where have you sourced your information from?
All MPs are required to complete an entry in each year’s Register of Members’ Interests (the “Register”).
The purpose of the entry, according to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, is to:
“…provide information about any financial interest which a Member has, or any benefit which he or she receives, which others might reasonably consider to influence his or her actions or words as a Member of Parliament.” [Emphasis added]
They must also update the Register if any changes occur.
You can see copies of the Register here.
All of the information on the map comes directly from the Register.
As MPs acquire or dispose of interests then their entry changes so additional tranches of data come from examining every copy of the Register published since the last General Election (i.e. from January 2020).
As new information arises it is added to the map so you have a clear picture of what an MP has done with their interests since January 2020; you will be able to see how much an MP has accepted/earned since the last election.
Where interests have been provided by/derived from a company then we have searched for the company online at Companies House using the precise name provided by the MP.
If a company is part of a group then we have searched for all other members of the group in order to establish the corporate structure and any relationships to private healthcare interests (as described below) that might not have been immediately apparent from the name of the company/entity provided by the MP.
Where interests have been provided by/derived from a private individual then we have, insofar as is possible, searched for that name.
Many such searches produced multiple possible candidates and so we have not included the donor (this is one of the real problems with the absence of transparency of contributions from private donors who do not have to provide any further detail such as an address, details of any companies they are linked with, etc.).
Some such donors are more high profile or have been publicly linked with the donation they have made in which case we have included them.
There is a rather murky underbelly in the whole registration system which is comprised of “unincorporated associations”. These are completely private organisations (a bit like a club) that are unregistered, have no public face, do not have to provide any public information but which contribute significant sums to the Conservative Party in particular. There is no way of knowing whether these associations have any links to private healthcare organisations and/or whether they are seeking to buy influence amongst MPs, but the lack of transparency is extremely worrying and seems ripe for abuse.
What do you mean by an interest?
The map contains information about MPs who have direct interests in a private healthcare organisation.
The register breaks interests which must be declared into a number of categories.
All of those interests included on the map fall into one of the following four categories:
1. Earnings
2. Donations
3. Hospitality
4. Shares
What do you mean by private healthcare?
This is a (very much non-exhaustive) list of the types of organisations that we think could give rise to the appearance of, or an actual, conflict of interest.
Such organisations include:
1. For profit companies/organisations through which doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals provide clinical services to patients (we have deliberately not included private dentists as that is beyond the scope of this current project) – e.g. private hospitals, private units within NHS hospitals, private GP services, private specialist clinics, private nursing/care homes.
2. For profit companies/organisations which are engaged in providing “outsourced” NHS services – in essence, these are services which would be provided by the NHS (not for profit) if adequate resources were provided. Instead, they are provided by for profit private clinics which usually pay NHS staff to do extra work in their spare time. The NHS could pay the same staff to do overtime and no profit making would be involved. Alternatively, the government could provide the NHS with more resources so that it can employ more staff to provide a not for profit service for patients. It is in the interests of private companies such as these who donate to MPs that they don’t.
3. Private healthcare insurance companies or underwriters.
4. For profit companies that supply services to the NHS that it could, if adequately resourced, provide itself. Services such as these include IT, recruitment, laboratories, diagnostics and pathology, cleaning, catering, maintenance, etc.
5. For profit pharmaceutical companies/organisations.
6. For profit biotech companies.
7. Any company/organisation which invests with a view to making a profit in the companies/organisations described at 1 – 6 above.