DHL deal a 'disaster' for the NHS
04 September 2006
DHL awarded NHS contract for supplies and logistics worth 22 billion over 10 years.
Stuart Jeffery, Green Party Health Spokesperson commented today:
"DHL's partner company in the US, Novation, is currently facing a massive fraud probe for allegedly taking bribes from suppliers and preventing new health technologies from being purchased.
"Putting a private company - accountable only to its shareholders - in charge of a part of the NHS that is so fundamental to its working is a recipe for disaster. DHL will have to make its profits by driving down purchasing prices and wages for its staff. It will only be able to do this through reducing the quality of equipment and the intimidation of suppliers. There is a great deal of evidence that some supermarkets bully suppliers to obtain low prices - this is very likely to be replicated by DHL.
"Handing a £22 billion contract to the private sector will damage the ability of the NHS to be clinically effect as it will reduce the quality and range of products available to it. It is also further evidence that Patricia Hewitt is firmly in bed with the corporate lobby and intends to take the privatisation of the NHS to financial and clinical ruin.
"The NHS is already putting high levels of funding into private companies that are making large profits, profits which are at the expense of core services. With the cash crisis delaying operations across the country the government hasn't understood the problem when it announces that it will give even more cash to the private sector."
