West End Letters: Martin Kennedy | NHS Profit and loss | calamitous handling | business ethos

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published:17 April 2009

NHS profit and loss

• AS if we are not already sufficiently demoralised by the calamitous mishandling of the economy by national and local officials and representatives, NHS London has now decided, with faultless timing, to hand over yet another £144million (Anger as private company wins contract to run an NHS centre, April 10).
Like doomed sailors clinging to a sinking wreck, our glorious leaders continue to be hypnotised by the corroded 1980s “business” ethos which declares that private involvement in public services improves efficiency and saves money, long after it has become brutally obvious that it has precisely the reverse effect and that the only people who ever benefit from these arrangements are the directors and shareholders of these companies.
If we want public services we must pay for them (or not). They can never turn a profit and it is simply stupid to pretend that they can.
Martin Kennedy
Brewer Street, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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