£241 million was dished out to private profit-making firms to interpret NHS diagnostic scans in the last year. It’s up from £81 million in 2018. Lots more profit potential for the privatising vultures that circle our crumbling health service.
Ambitious and recently resigned Labour ex-health minister Wes Streeting would probably tell you it is necessary to deal with waiting lists. And private health bosses would probably shake his hand and say ‘we agree’.
The Royal College of Radiologists however reports that 86% of radiology department heads say that they have serious concerns about the quality of reports, 90% of radiologists need to double-check the work done through outsourcing.
The NHS is short of radiologists, but there is currently a shortage of training posts and currently 11 applications for every post. The outsourcing vulture bosses are probably perfectly happy with that potentially profitable fact.
Our NHS needs investment now. Just a fraction of the vast wealth reported as held by those in the Sunday Times Rich List would do the job of bolstering training places. Nationalising all the private health profiteers under democratic working-class control and management would be an important step too.
