CIRCLE HOLDINGS, the first privateer to take over the running of an NHS hospital, quit the management of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire yesterday, leaving the much-needed District General Hospital threatened with closure.
In a Tory flagship policy, the government handed over Hinchingbrooke to Circle in the spring of 2012.
It is a ‘disaster waiting to happen when you get the private sector involved in running a hospital,’ said the GMB union yesterday.
Spokesman Steve Sweeney said: ‘It’s not overly surprising to see them try to pack their bags, cut loose and walk away.
‘Obviously having the major backers walk away leaves (the hospital) in a very vulnerable position … we’re hoping that there’s some planning in place to aid and assist that.’
Circle said yesterday that its Hinchingbrooke franchise is ‘no longer viable under current terms’.
The move comes amid funding cuts and pressure on the casualty department, Circle said.
It said there had been unprecedented increases in accident and emergency attendances, a lack of care places for patients awaiting discharge, and that funding had been cut by 10.1% this financial year.
Chief Executive Steve Melton said: ‘This combination of factors means we have now reluctantly concluded that, in its existing form, Circle’s involvement in Hinchingbrooke is unsustainable.’
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: ‘Hinchingbrooke has gone full circle from flagship to complete failure.
‘This is the proof that the privatisation of the NHS is a disastrous experiment at the expense of our healthcare.
‘We believe Circle has jumped before it was pushed with the company cynically using the A&E crisis as cover to pull out of its contract.’
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘Privatising Hinchingbrooke was guaranteed to be a failure.
‘It was a dangerous government experiment which should now raise alarm bells for any other firms who think that running hospitals is an easy route to profit.
‘The experience shows that forcing a privatised model on the NHS was never going to work. Circle has systematically failed at Hinchingbrooke. It has caused untold damage to the finances of the hospital, services, local NHS patients and staff, and has placed the future of Hinchingbrooke at significant risk.’
Dr Mark Porter, BMA council chair said: ‘What has happened in Hinchingbrooke shows that the responsibility of running a critical public service can never be handed over, and so the insistence on private providers as a potential solution to problems facing Hinchingbrooke was always misguided.’
Steve Sweeney, GMB Regional Officer, said: ‘The news comes as no surprise to those of us that have long campaigned against the Circle takeover and called for them to be “sacked” as they lurched from one disaster to another.’
The GMB has jointly with the Hands Off Hinchingbrooke campaign called a public meeting in Huntingdon on Wednesday 14th Jan at 7pm in Huntingdon Methodist Church to secure the long-term future for the hospital as one that is NHS run, publicly funded and publicly accountable with no more private sector experiments.