Taking Care of Business: Privileging Private Sector Hospitals During the COVID Crisis

Abstract

In the early days of the COVID crisis, many commentators argued that it presented opportunities for progressive change, notably toward redress of structural inequalities in health. As with the financial slump of 2008, however, such notions have proved almost ridiculously optimistic as it has been capital, through its near symbiosis with the state, that has been best able to respond, with the English government—the devolved nations adopted a markedly different approach—taking every opportunity to ensure the pandemic has proved a bonanza for private-sector healthcare interests. However, this has not just been about individual contracts in, for example, test and trace, vaccination, or personal protective equipment; the crisis has been used to both rescue the private acute market following 2 years of contracted revenues and to provide enormous stimulus for its future growth. This has required the support of several organizations acting in concert, including the NHS Confederation and the Royal Colleges. While the pandemic has served to illuminate such relationships, the author also argues that the oft-recurring governmental praise of the NHS needs to be matched by genuine investment in public hospitals.