The British ConDem coalition government has unveiled plans for sweeping and controversial changes to the National Health Service in England^[1], which would see its workforce of around 1 million reduced to near zero within five years, with a combination of large-scale cuts and job losses, and staff hived off to the private sector and ‘social enterprises’. And while services would still be available to all free at point of use, and funded from taxation, the NHS would effectively be reduced from a public service to a ‘single payer’ fund of taxpayers’ money to be used to purchase health care from a range of private nonprofit and for-profit providers. Continue reading →

John Lister, European web coordinator for AHCJ, has been a journalist for 35 years, specializing in reporting health policy in England. He is the author of "Health Policy Reform: Driving the Wrong Way?," a critique of market-style reforms, and "The NHS After 60: for Patients or Profits?," a critical history of the British National Health Service.