Government backtracks selling off of NHS Professionals

The government has made a U-turn on its decision to privatise an NHS employment agency it owns that supplies hospitals with staff to ease understaffing.

The Department of Health has announced that NHS Professionals Limited will remain in wholly public ownership, after offers to buy a majority share undervalued its potential, a statement by Parliament said.

In November last year, the government decided to instigate a sale of the company as a path to provide it with the extra expertise, technology and investment it needed to work with more hospitals and make bigger savings for the NHS.

However, the government has concluded that none of the offers received reflected the company’s growing potential and improved performance.

NHS Providers currently has over 90,000 workers filling over 2 million shifts, saving the NHS £70 million yearly. However, it only works with a quarter of trusts, meaning many others rely on more expensive agencies to supply staff.

Since the decision was taken to seek offers for the company, NHS Providers has increased its performance such that audited profit before tax for the year ending 31 March 2017 was 44 per cent higher than in the previous year.

The company’s improved financial and operational performance means it can now invest in improved IT infrastructure, expand its services to the NHS and transform into a world-class provider of flexible staff whilst remaining under public ownership, generating further savings for the NHS, all of which will continue to be reinvested in frontline services.

The government is calling for trusts to work together to fill shifts via collaborative banks, and there will be opportunities for NHS Professionals and others to support this work.

The government says it is ‘fully committed to providing world-class NHS services that are free a the point of the use, now and in the future’.

Responding to the decision Sara Gorton, UNISON head of health, said: “The government has at last seen sense. NHS Professionals is an organisation that saves the health service money and ensures there are enough staff on wards.

“But despite many warnings, ministers have once again gone through a pointless exercise, wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers cash. Instead of filling the pockets of management consultants, this money could have been better spent improving services for patients.

“Selling off NHS Professionals would have been completely counterproductive and bad for patients and staff.”