Royal Free deputy chief executive Caroline Clarke: 'This isn’t an outsourcing situation – it is a joint venture'

Published: 30 May, 2013
by TOM FOOT

HUNDREDS of NHS staff are being transferred onto the books of a private company which is about to take control of the pathology service overseeing blood tests at the Royal Free and University College London hospitals.

The London-based company, The Doctors Laboratory, will be a major shareholder in a “joint venture” being set up with the hospitals. It will employ 690 staff currently working for the NHS.  

A 90-day consultation survey has been launched on changes that critics have said represent a dramatic escalation of the privatisation of the NHS in Camden.

A senior Royal Free source said staff were being offered the choice of transferring or resignation. “Simply selling off the service and loyal NHS scientists is a lazy and shortsighted approach,” he added.

“I joined the NHS to work for the NHS, when I could have earned more working elsewhere. That choice is being taken away from hundreds of other staff. There appears to be no fight from the unions against this.”

New staff will not be able to contribute to the pension scheme, receive childcare vouchers or take advantage of cycle schemes available to NHS employees.

Under NHS reforms introduced by Tony Blair’s Labour government, independently-run foundation trusts such as the hospital in Pond Street, Hampstead, are able to join commercial companies to bid for NHS contracts.

The pathology service oversees all blood tests for the Royal Free, UCLH and GPs, and supports emergency work done in A&E units.

It provides crucial information to about 80 per cent of the hospital, handling around two million samples per year from blood, urine and spinal cords.

A consultation paper states: “Staff transferring to the joint venture will no longer be eligible for NHS staff discounts.”

It is proposed that all members of pathology staff currently in NHS housing accommodation will be able to remain there for a maximum of 12 months after the changes go through.

There will be no redundancies “at the time of the transfer”, but some may follow when the firm takes over.

The Doctors Laboratory, which is based in Whitfield Street, Fitzrovia, already has laboratories in Manchester and Edgware.

Its Australian parent company, Sonic Healthcare, claims to be “one of the world’s largest providers of clinical diagnostics” with a turnover of three billion Australian dollars.

According to files at Companies House, TDL forecasts “a significant amount of tendering activity in the NHS pathology sector as hospital trusts seek ways in which they can lower costs and improve service levels”.

GP commissioning presents “further opportunities which we are actively pursuing”, the paperwork adds.

According to the Royal Free and UCLH joint consultation, the changes follow guidance laid out in a review by Lord Carter in 2006 which recommended urgent reforms because of a “lack of investment” in the pathology service.

Royal Free deputy chief executive Caroline Clarke told the New Journal: “This isn’t an outsourcing situation – it is a joint venture.

"We would still be on the board, have clinical input and shape the future of the organisation.

“We don’t have as much money as we used to, and this is one way of getting investment into pathology. GPs are paying us less.

“Eventually, they will pay you so little you have to consolidate.

"You look at what is happening nationally. We can sell this to the NHS and put the money back in the Royal Free.”