From Gill George, Chair, Keep Hackney NHS Public

Some horrific new government proposals emerged yesterday. There is an advert in the 'Official Journal of the European Union' that effectively flogs off the whole of the NHS to the private sector. This is not just a Government proposal - this is an advert that's already gone out inviting private companies to submit bids for pretty much whatever they want.

At the moment, NHS organisations called Primary Care Trusts have two functions - they directly provide clinical services like health visiting, district nursing, physiotherapy etc and they 'commission' services - so they plan and organise the clinical care that is provided either directly by their own staff or by hospitals, mental health trusts, or (increasingly) private sector companies.

Now, all this is going to change. Private sector companies are being invited to take over the running of Primary Care Trusts. This means whichever company runs the Primary Care Trust(s) in a region has direct control of pretty much all of the NHS budget and all of the decision making power. This doesn't just affect community NHS services, because the private sector will decide who provides 'acute' (hospital based) care. Think about it - they're not going to buy from the Homerton Hospital; they'll buy services from their own subsidiaries or other private companies they have a 'partnership' arrangement with. This will be replicated across the country. Within a couple of years, we will have lost most of the NHS.

Forget 'creeping privatisation' - this genuinely amounts to the complete dismantling of the NHS.

The astonishing thing is that this is happening totally without consultation. The Government forgot to mention it to MPs! I was at an Amicus meeting with MPs yesterday night. Frank Dobson had heard rumours about this from an article in the Financial Times a few days ago. He saw the advert for the first time when I gave it to him. John McDonnell had heard about this yesterday from Keep Our NHS Public. Other MPs - including the Chair of the Health Select Committee - did not know about this until union members raised it in the meeting.

Frank Dobson said in the meeting that this was about the complete privatisation of the NHS and giving £75 billion directly to the private sector.

National NHS unions had no notion of this until yesterday, when Keep Our NHS Public Supporters began to circulate the advert.

It's clear that Chief Executives and Chairs of Primary Care Trusts also did not know.

So the NHS is being flogged off, with about as little discussion, democracy and accountability as you can possibly imagine.

Things to Do

• Come and meet Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt next Tuesday morning (4th July). She is attending a public meeting in Bethnal Green - details attached. Please book in advance. If you can attend, or would like to give out leaflets outside, please give me a ring on 07900 411769.

• Write to your local MP - Diane Abbott or Meg Hillier for Hackney people.
• Come to the London Keep Our NHS Public activists meeting on 19th July (7.30pm, Calthorpe Arms, 252 Grays Inn Road - near Kings Cross).