GEORGE Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton is in danger of becoming the second NHS hospital to undergo a private sector takeover
The foundation trust hospital has applied to the Department of Health for a license to franchise its management.
The development has drawn criticism from South Warwickshire Foundation Trust (FT), which was hoping to bring the hospital into a county-wide merger.
Last Wednesday, staff from George Eliot Hospital demonstrated outside Coleshill town hall to protest against any private takeover.
The protest coincided with a Trust Board meeting at Coleshill where the bidding process currently underway would be discussed.
In 2011 government rules stopped the George Eliot Hospital from becoming a Foundation Trust.
Ministers ordered it to either merge or find a partner to run it. The shortlist of bidders included two private companies. The buyers hope to takeover in November 2014.
The two companies bidding to run the hospital are Circle Health Plc, which took over the first privately run NHS hospital in Cambridgeshire in February 2012 and Care UK, which runs private care homes for the elderly.
Interest was confirmed from three NHS trusts – South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, Burton Hospitals and Dudley Group.
The University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust was forced out of the bidding process last month.
Plans for an NHS merger with South Warwickshire FT, forming a new Warwickshire foundation trust, enjoyed support from hospital staff and patients.
However, South Warwickshire FT has said it will not compete under the terms of a franchise. Chief Executive Glen Burley commented: ‘Running a hospital is not like running McDonald’s.’
Circle, which took over Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire in February, is now considered the front runner for the George Eliot contract.
‘The George Eliot Hospital Trust (GEHT) is being steamrollered into private hands without patients and staff being given a proper say,’ Unison head of Health Christina McAnea said yesterday.
She has written to the Trust Board of Governors calling for an urgent meeting.
McAnea went on to say: ‘We need to call time-out on the whole George Eliot procurement process.
‘Unison locally has met a brick wall when making perfectly reasonable requests for information from management.
‘This cannot be allowed to go on and I am calling on the Board to meet with Unison for urgent talks.’
l Unite launched a digital campaign yesterday appealing to people to stop the government from taking sweeping powers that allow them to shut any English hospital in a matter of days without any consultation.
The union said a clause in the Care Bill going through parliament means that dozens of hospitals could be at risk of closure within 40 days, leaving communities suddenly bereft of local health care.
