Plans for “academies-style” reform of the NHS set up prospect of effectively private control of state-funded hospitals

Plans, reported today, for an “academy-style” model for the National Health Service would appear to pave the way for what would effectively be private control of state-funded hospitals.

Under proposals reported as being designed to “improve patchy NHS leadership” – by a government which its many critics will say has leadership problems of its own – the academies model is being billed as a solution to NHS problems including “post-pandemic waiting lists”.

The Times reported that Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is “formulating the reorganisation to give well-run hospitals more freedom as well as forcing failing trusts to improve”. This description certainly fits with the way the academies policy is billed by ministers as operating.

The piece added: “A new class of ‘reform trust’ will be established as Javid signals an appetite for wide-ranging changes to deal with a ‘huge’ variation in performance across the health service.

“Modelling reforms on the Blairite academies programme could lead to failing hospitals being forcibly turned into reform trusts, as happens with schools that are rated inadequate. It is possible that chains of hospitals will be run by leading NHS managers, or even outside sponsors, although this is yet to be decided.”