Before this Thursday, Stop Centene growing

Private companies will only take over the NHS if they think they can make a profit . . . . .why doesn't the government run it, and any profit can be ploughed back in???

Government will argue that there are no changes in that the service is free to access, but if profit orientated organisations get in control the standard of service and staff will drop as has happened in the care home industry. There will be minimum attention paid to staff training and professional development and poor quality care of patients and all those needing free medical assistance will find they have to fit within tight tick box protocols or lose out entirely.

The whole principle of the NHS was and still should be that profit-making should play no role in health care. It may be OK that people can choose between different commodities or services, but health is NOT a commodity like buying a car or having a hair-do - WE HAVE NO CHOICE. We didn't want to get ill!

This has been going on for years, its being driven by business & profit demands & has intensified since the 2012 Health & Social Care Act. We need to kick out organisations like the Centene Corporation, huge unaccountable multi million pound businesses, from providing any healthcare services in the UK. This is privatisation & competition by the back door, by stealth, and decision makers should really examine whether this is in the interests of patients & all those who work in the NHS. All NHS services must be both free at the point of need & delivered by public sector organisations not the private sector.

The NHS and the GP surgeries provide an essential service for the people of the this country to keep us healthy and treat us when they are not. We pay for the NHS so what we pay should go into the services and not to investors in private companies. Healthcare should be not for profit.

The NHS is the envy of the world designed to provide a public service based on need not on profits. Once it is in private hands the motive becomes not about patient care but about profit for business and private investors. The public in the UK want a public health service not one where tax payers hard-earned money ends up in private hands. It is a disgrace that some GP practices have already been sold off to the American company, Centene Privatisation of any part of the NHS has resulted in more expensive treatment which many people cannot afford. The current state of dentistry in this country is a good example of what happens when our health service is privatised. I request that you do not renew Centene's contract tomorrow.

The NHS is the envy of the world and health should not be seen as a commodity to be sold in the market place. Save our institutions.

Irrespective of making money for shareholders, outsourcing services isn't necessarily a cost saver - to be effective, these things need to be managed properly, which itself is a drain on the NHS side. As a previous post said, cut out the middlemen. Whatever the 'failings' in the NHS, privatisation won't resolve it by itself. Look at the railways or utility companies.

Operations typically involve recruiting in quantities of people, sometimes with little training or support or background knowledge - witness Track n Trace.

The NHS needs the space to regroup and rebuild following COVID. No renewal, no extension please.

As somebody fortunate enough to have been born on the first day of the NHS, 5 July 1948, I have a lifetime of support by this world leading institution that provides essential health care to all when required. Over the years I have seen this provision eroded by charges for drugs, the slow loss of dental care to private profiteering providers, while the health insurance companies and their selective health care has stripped the NHS of staff and resources.

Margaret Thatcher wanted to destroy the NHS and move to a fully American insurance based system, but was afraid of the political response so avoided the conflict. The Cameron Conservative government, the 'NHS is safe with the Conservatives', has slowly eroded the national provision, initially with Andrew Lansley's reorganisation in 2012, after nine years of meetings with 'private health care providers' to discuss the most profitable areas of health care, the government pre-legislation review was never published not even for MPs who voted on its enactment. Health Trust, Clinical Commissioning Groups intended to place market competition into a non-profit organisation, creating a plethora of unnecessary administration on what was in 2010 declared by the OECD a world leading health provider with its highest satisfaction rating in its history. After eleven years of Conservative governments we now have 4.7 million on waiting lists for treatment, experienced a pandemic with nearly 130,000 deaths and large numbers with lasting medical conditions resulting from the virus when in 2015 response to a global pandemic was researched but the report withheld while Mr Hunt attacked NHS staff on supposed 24/7 service. The continuing High Court cases revealing the processes that led to billions being spent of uncontested contracts given to priority companies associated with Conservative politicians, or political donors to the Conservative Party, many of which failed to deliver, such as £21 million given to a go-between to a Florida jeweller with supposed contacts in China who failed to provide promised PPE; many Conservative connected companies with no connection to health products given priority over those producing necessary items, such as Mr Dyson who failed to produce necessary ventilators to specification while obtaining a promise of tax exemption for a possible return to the UK and a peerage. An associate of Mr Hancock appointed without competition the NHS Improvement, see earlier comment on waiting lists, NHS Test and Trace with disastrous failings to trace even with a £37 billion budget, mainly given to companies such as SERCO who proclaimed the massive profits they would make from the contract, and soon to be the head of the replacement for NHS England. The lady who was in-charge of TalkTalk when it lost is clients data and had to resign given essential health service post because she was pay free, available, and associated to the Minister of Health through her horseracing connection, he being MP for Newmarket reliant on donations from the horse trainers in his constituency.

The new proposed reorganisation of the NHS, supposedly to do away with Mr Lansley's reorganisation, he now being a peer and advisor to private health providers, will likely open access further to private providers, health insurers many of which like Centene will be foreign owned and controlled, stripping taxpayer funding and individuals' contributions to provide profits offshore and untaxed in the UK, while removing any local accountability from health provision. An analysis of the American Health system rated the most expensive providing poor service to large numbers of Americans insured through their employer when not in full employment, or huge crippling costs for normal medical conditions $10,000+ for dental care, $100,000s for cancer treatment, charges to see a GP or ambulance attendance. A future nobody in the UK has faced for 72 years but likely in the next 3-4, or just after the next election in 2024.

National Health Service is just that, National not private. Keep the American companies OUT. The Tories have never wanted the National Health Service. Also transport and the utilities should be state owned. The profits from each should go into government coffers and not into billionaires pockets.

I am totally opposed to Centene and any other for-profit private companies taking over any part of our NHS. There is a huge difference between a multinational corporation that operates to make a profit, often by cutting staff and services, and local GPs who are part of the NHS family and provide services from the NHS budget but are not beholden to any shareholders. This privatisation by stealth is unacceptable and not what the general public have been promised by this government who have repeatedly said the NHS is not being privatised and is not for sale.

The NHS is paid for by us tax payers for our benefit, not to line the pockets of people running huge, private companies.

The National Health Service is owned by those who fund it, that is, all of those paying their National Insurance, etc. It is therefore a National Asset, not a profit making business.

We pay taxes in the good faith that these monies will be used for the public good, and to maximum effect. We want mutual support within our society, we want the best possible healthcare delivered free of charge at he point of need. Arranging for a portion of our taxes to be syphoned off as profit by a private company does not help in any way to maximise the delivery of healthcare. Any claim that somehow using public payment to provide private profit is efficient is utterly preposterous. Please get your thinking and principles back onto a sensible track. Stop this privatisation nonsense, we want our public money spent for our public good.

Please don’t leave our precious NHS GP services in the hands of Centene. The NHS’s raisin d’etre is responding to need, Centene’s is making as much money as possible. It doesn’t fit. Patient welfare has and will continue to be very adversely impacted if Centene is allowed to continue and given more control over decision-making.

Profit should not be made from people suffering from ill health. The NHS was formed to help and care for sick people without the added worry off having to pay for treatment. Privatising the NHS will lower the excellent service it provides as greedy profit makers don’t care about people, just how much money they can make. Healthcare is not a commercial business but a caring service that puts people first.

Our NHS and GPs need to be in a position to decide how they care for their UK taxpaying and A&E patients. Not some foreign-owned insurance company whose eye will be on their own bottom line and dividends to shareholders. We do not want to be told what US drugs must be used. We do not want to know that our UK GPs are having their hands tied by foreign owners and investors. Please, do not sell our precious NHS, a standard bearer and world leader in world class health care. It is to be copied not sold.

Healthcare is a human right. It can not be operated as a for-profit business model, doing so denies patients access to provision of this right.

The NHS is at the heart and soul of everything we do in this country; to mess around with its system of care - precarious at times of stress in demands and shortages, but somehow, always striving... to offer solace , encouragement and hope behind every personal caring action .

The NHS is a much valued public service that must remain public and not be gradually 'watered down' by progressive use of private contractors or companies. Only by having a public service can we be assured of retaining committed staff and expertise with the ethos of public service for its own sake. Otherwise the bottom line is likely to predominate and you should not be persuaded to let contractors like Centene be appointed by the false economy of appearing to save money or by government diktat.

Privatisation has failed on so many levels on so many occasions and does not work. It should be kept well out of the NHS on all fronts!

Healthcare cannot be run for profit - it is a service.

Teh NHS is a fantastic resource to which we owe our health. There are limited resources for healthcare. All of the money available should go into the NHS and not into private profits.

The NHS was supposed to be safe and not privatised by this government. This seems to be a lie, and a cruel one at the expense of people's health.

Kick private companies out - people, not profit!

The NHS belongs to us all, we do not want our health service sold off to private companies who want to make profits. Health care should be about people not profits.

Wherever private companies, whose primary purpose is to make profits for their shareholders, become involved in delivery public health and medical care for people, the services provided become compromised. The kind of people that will be treated and the care that will be provided will be prioritised according to how profitable it is to the providers, not how best it responds to the needs of individuals and society at large. Please stop allowing private company intrusion into and exploitation of our NHS, and of our citizens and the employees of NHS practices and services.

American health care companies are only interested in UK health care in order to make profit for their share holders taking money which should be spent on patient care not on fat cats' portfolios.

Tax payers' money should not be used to generate profits for private companies which are effectively exploiting what are meant to be "not for profit" public services like the NHS. This means that money intended to provide public services is being siphoned off as private profit.

It is immoral to sell off our NHS to greedy American private healthcare companies.

We have learnt the lessons from the pandemic that public ownership and cooperation with local healthcare provide much better outcome than private companies who only aim to make profit and bleed the NHS dry. Keep Centene out of our GP practices in Brent . The NHS is not for sale particularly to American private healthcare companies who create briken health care

The free National Health Service wasn't set up after the Second World War for the British people, just for American capitalist parasites to worm their way in and suck profits out of it.

Get out of our NHS!

Illness is NOT a business opportunity

We don't want companies like Centene taking profit out of our NHS healthcare set-up

We don't want GP practices run for any objective other than free healthcare provision.

This is privatisation and it's unacceptable. Please do not renew Centene

The UK has developed a "mutual approach" to providing health services to the nation and it is in need of extending that approach to social services : certainly not shrinking that approach . All resources should be kept available for any such mutual approach to providing nationally approved services and facilities and certainly not "milked" (by anyone) for profits and data that escape from the national pool of resources.

I agree with all the comments above - the NHS is for British people who fund it. Selling GP practices to foreign entities to enable those to profit is immoral and unacceptable.

American healthcare is inadequate. The NHS is invaluable - please do not involve private American companies in the management of any NHS services. They cannot be trusted and work against the principle of free at the point of use.

No privatisation by the back door - or through the ‘useful third party’ excuse.

Our NHS is their for everyone, young or old, rich or poor. It's a worry when you are ill, but it would be a bigger worry if you had to pay to see a GP or see a specialist. We must keep our NHS public and stop private companies from taking over for profit.Our NHS must be for patients and not for profit.

Please do not let centene have control of our GP service or any part of our

NOT FOR PROFIT NHS.

The National Health Service is owned by the British people and run on our behalf by the elected government. When were we asked by the present government whether we are in agreement with parts of it being sold off to American companies to be run for their enrichment?

I am a retired GP and was greatly involved in practice organization. I was brought up in a GP house and remember the start of th NHS. I watched the ability for all people to access health care, and the great relief it produced. I am horrified by the insidious, but covert , privatization. This must be stopped

In January this year, Trade Minister Greg Hands said there was no need to protect the health service with legislation because “the NHS is not and never will be for sale". He characterised such claims as "offensive and absurd".

And yet, American healthcare giant Centene has recently taken over 49 GP practices. Now, with a total of over 70 GP practices under its control, it has become the largest single private primary care provider in England.

With North West London CCG's contract with Centene up for renewal this Thursday, I ask you not to put the health care of vulnerable patients in the hands of a private company that has already shown that it has a greater concern for profit than for health care.

Our NHS is their for everyone, young or old, rich or poor. It's a worry when you are ill, but it would be a bigger worry if you had to pay to see a GP or see a specialist. We must keep our NHS public and stop private compa

nies from taking over for profit.Our NHS must be for patients and not for profit

Allowed to go through and before we know we'll have to pay to get an appointment to go to the surgery.Then it will be medical insurance.

Keep Centrico out completely.

I agree with all the comments above. It is not for a semi privatised GP committee to sell the UK's NHS by the pound to any corporation private or not. I also have grave concerns about the protection of citizens private health data being shared with other companies and entities. This theft must be stopped in its tracks.

The reason is in the title. The NHS is the National Health Service. The NHS serves the general public. It should be funded by the general public through sufficient government taxation. Private health-related companies should be legally unable to provide services for the NHS. An increase in taxation would be justifiable in order to keep the NHS in the public sector.

I was born 1 year, 1 month and 1 day after the NHS came into being and have therefore been lucky enough to have lived my entire life under its excellent care. It was created by the struggles of my and millions other people's parents and grandparents in the aftermath of the destruction of World War II as a PUBLIC SERVICE FREE AT THE POINT OF USE to meet the needs of every person in this country. Those generations knew that any healthcare system worthy of the name should be PUBLICLY OWNED, PUBLICLY CONTROLLED AND PUBLICLY ACCOUNTABLE. Allowing private healthcare companies to extract profits from our taxpayer funded NHS, especially ones like Centene from the USA where millions of people have no healthcare provision, is both completely unacceptable and immoral.

I don't believe my father and many members of the Empire's armed forces fought his way across the continent to Belsen and back to have his vote in the election of 1945 squandered by people supporting spivs and black marketeers. His vote and millions placed by the vast majority of people in Great Britain was instrumental in the formation of the National Health and similar vital public services.

Please do not allow this service to be pirated by people who have only belief in their own profit, irrespective of whom it may hurt.

Hardly ned to add anything, I totally agree with thee previous comments, the NHS is funded by tax payers to provide a service, it is not a vehicle for making profits which will be sent out of the country to the states!!

If the Covid pandemic has shown one fundamental about our health service, it is that the NHS and local public health services have performed much better than the attempts at bringing in private businesses. In fact the vaccination programme goes further than that and has relied onan army of volunteers that would be much less wiling to help if there was a smell of private profit. Keep genral practice a public service for the benefit of all.

To let our NHS and G.P surgeries be taken over by private companies is to exploit public trust.Very few realise that the NHS has been reassembled over many years to include profit greedy companies.Your health care compromised for their wealth care.It's a shameful betrayal of public naivety and trust.

Stop making rich people richer and lowering the quality of care to line their own pockets. What they are doing here is so corrupt it stinks. The government is wrong if they think the public do not know what they’re up to.