Monday 18 February 2013

Oops they did it again.

Spotted by Bob E in The Guardian:

Atos, the company contracted by the Department for Work and Pensions to carry out medical assessments of people claiming benefits, has subcontracted elements of the work back to a number of NHS trusts in England.

The subcontracting of the NHS by Atos in Scotland prompted questions last year from MPs over whether it represented value for public money for the state to contract work to a private company if the work was then outsourced back to the state sector...

It emerged last October that Atos Healthcare had appointed the Scottish healthcare provider NHS Lanarkshire's occupational health arm, Salus, to help carry out assessments for Pip.

Lanarkshire NHS will receive £22m from Atos to carry out the work until July 2017... Atos is receiving £238m for work in Scotland, north-east and north-west England, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.

4 comments:

Sarton Bander said...

Well yes it DOES represent value for money as the private company has cut out a lot of other NHS middlemen.

Mark Wadsworth said...

SB, are you being sarcastic? This is PFI on steroids.

James Higham said...

It's like some bizarre endtimes spoof. Outsource it to the public sector? Sheesh.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, sad thing is, it is not a spoof.

Of course, the whole PIP thing is pointless to start with - give people their Citizen's Income and cut taxes on earnings and most of it will sort itself out.