Wes Streeting invited private healthcare executives to help draft his 10-year plan for the NHS, EveryDoctor can reveal.
A vice president for US private healthcare giant UnitedHealth was among those who sat on working groups set up by the health secretary to shape the plan, according to documents published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Michael Macdonnell, whose job is to “build out new growth areas for UnitedHealth, including new markets”, was a member of a group which considered how the NHS can improve prevention of ill health alongside figures from the health service, academia and the voluntary sector.
UnitedHealth, long criticised in the US for putting profits ahead of patients, delivers medicines management and prescription services to the NHS through its subsidiary Optum. Last year, the company acquired EMIS, a major NHS IT supplier whose patient record systems are used in primary care.
The prevention chapter of the 10-year plan, published in July, commits the health service to partnering with the private sector to “drive the innovation that supports healthier lives” including through establishing a single patient record system.
Also invited to contribute were David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), the private healthcare industry’s main lobbying group. Hare sat on a group tasked with recommending how to expand access to healthcare. The IHPN has pressed ministers to use private hospitals to deliver more NHS services.
Other private sector figures included:
- Richard Bradford, chair of InHealth Group, which provides NHS diagnostic services, who joined a working group on staff recruitment.
- Oliver Groene, chief scientific officer at German company OptiMedis AG, helped shape policy on how the NHS commissions providers.
- Ruth McKernan, a partner at investment fund SV Health Ventures, contributed to a group focused on life sciences, the sector her fund invests in.
- Think tanks including the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) were also offered a chance to input. Charlotte Refsum, the institute’s director of health policy, sat on a group which considered how to “maximise the impact of data and digital technology in healthcare”.
TBI relies on the tech industry for much of its funding, having received more than £200m in donations from a foundation set up by Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle and ally of the US president, Donald Trump. The tech company has invested heavily in AI products, including tools used in healthcare, and has already won deals totaling more than £1.5 billion to build digital health records for individual NHS trusts.
In all, 11 working groups of more than a dozen members each fed into the plan. Their instructions included recognising “that public sector finances are always very tight” and devising proposals to save money.
“It is deeply concerning to see that Wes Streeting has involved private healthcare executives in shaping his NHS 10 year plan. Why should the corporations which seek to profit from the NHS be allowed a seat at the table? If Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting truly want to rebuild the NHS, they would prioritise the voices of frontline staff and patients, and eliminate profit creation from the delivery of patient services. We are deeply concerned that Starmer and Streeting’s plans will lead to an acceleration in NHS privatisation.”
Dr Julia Patterson, Chief Executive, EveryDoctor.
The appointments detailed above once again reveal a concerning pattern – NHS decisions are being made by individuals with strong ties to private healthcare interests and track records of advocating for NHS privatisation.
As our NHS faces unprecedented challenges, these decision-makers’ commitment to private sector solutions raises serious questions about this plan for the future of the NHS.
If you share our concerns about protecting our National Health Service as a public institution, join EveryDoctor’s community of doctors and patients fighting to preserve the NHS for future generations.
