The Price of Redistribution

The protests against the privatization of the British health service (National Health Service - NHS) are to be continued, according to trade union circles in London. In a nationwide action day with rallies and demonstrations in several cities last Saturday, thousands protested the NHS sellout. Already In the 1990s the British government began to transfer the national health service to profit-oriented companies and is still continuing at this privatization. Also German enterprises such as the Deutsche Post are benefiting.

Outsourcing Trend

The DHL had been granted a billion Euro contract for logistics services for the NHS already last fall. The Deutsche Post, a formerly state owned company, with headquarters in the former German capital Bonn, recently announced a new record sales volume and its plans to become the world's leading logistics group.[1] DHL relies heavily on the British logistics giant, Exel, that it had taken over in 2005.[2] Exel is providing not only sales volumes, but also business contacts for the German enterprise. According to circles in the logistics sector, the Deutsche Post's British competitor, that it recently bought out, furnished contacts in London, that enabled access to the National Health System.[3] In the meantime, the German company is even responsible for printing legal texts and parliamentary protocols. According to its own admission, Deutsche Post disposes of a "outstanding platform", in London "enabling it to draw above average profit from the growing outsourcing trend in the public sector."[4]

Billion-Contract

The DHL contract for NHS logistic services, which had become possible through the "growing outsourcing trend in the public sector", is conferring to the German company the comprehensive tasks of furnishing approximately 600 hospitals and other health service facilities. During the ten year duration of the contract a sales volume is expected to reach up to 2.3 billion Euros, according to the company, but the trade unions are estimating more than the double (5.5 billion Euros). There will be a turnover of goods and services valued 32 billion Euros. DHL has announced extensive austerity measures of up to 1.4 billion Euros.[5] Soon after the conclusion of the contract was announced, strikes were called - the first nationwide protests in the National Health Service in two decades.[6] The DHL's billion Euro contract played also a role in last weeks demonstrations.

German Portion

Alongside DHL activities in the NHS privatization, British trade union circles are also very attentive to the involvement of one of the most important German financial institutions. About a year ago, Netcare, the largest South African hospital operator, obtained a narrow majority (50.1 per cent) of General Healthcare, the largest private health service in Great Britain, at a price of 2.2 billion British Pounds.[7] This takeover was financed to a considerable degree by the Dresdner Bank, thereby increasing the German portion in the transfer of the British health system to private control.

Brussels

Regulations of the European Union are accelerating the NHS privatization, from which German enterprises are increasingly profiting. Brussels' Stability Pact is contributing by placing limits on the amount of public financing and, therefore, also the expenditures for tax financing of the British health system. The German government is pushing this policy by demanding that the draft of the EU Constitution Treaty be adopted as completely as possible. This would enact regulations favoring the privatization of the health service in all European Union member states. Critics fear a dramatic degradation of the services and point to the example of British development, where hospital wards and even entire hospitals are closed down without substitution and large scale layoffs will follow. Approximately 40,000 people per year are forced to sell their homes, to pay for expensive health services, reports Ron Dorman, National Organizer of the Campaign against Euro - Federalism (CAEF), an EU critical trade union organization, in a discussion with german-foreign-policy.com.[8] John Boyd, editor-in-chief, of the CAEF magazine "The Democrat", points to the dramatic rise in - at times - fatal hospital infections: "the hospitals' cleaning and catering services have been privatized."[9]

Europe

EU laws are simultaneously causing a drainage of British NHS tax funds. Due to long waiting lists at home, patients are going abroad (also to Germany) for treatment. Their treatment fees are being paid by the British health system.[10] NHS is also paying millions of Euros to German physicians, who work weekends in British hospitals.[11] The British hospital personnel is paying the price for this redistribution. According to recent estimates, up to 25,000 NHS full time jobs are endangered, because the costs of treatment are not covered.

[1] see also Größenvorteile ausschöpfen
[2] see also Top Ten
[3] Britische Klinik-Mitarbeiter bestreiken Belieferung; Der Tagesspiegel 22.09.2006
[4] see also Plattform
[5] DHL schließt 10-Jahres-Vertrag mit britischer Gesundheitsbehörde; Pressemitteilung der Deutsche Post World Net 05.09.2006
[6] see also Konfliktkurs and Ausstand
[7] South Africa medical firm grows in U.K.; International Herald Tribune 25.04.2006
[8], [9] see also our Interview with John Boyd und Ron Dorman
[10] Privatising the NHS. EU law will force competition; The Democrat January/February 2006
[11] Zum Wochenenddienst nach Großbritannien. 16 bis 20 Stunden arbeiten für 83 Euro die Stunde; Ärzte Zeitung 16.02.2007
[12] 25.000 Jobs in England gefährdet; Ärzte Zeitung 26.02.2007