Outsourcing under the Tories

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 the NHS to carry out its consultations in Scotland in an unusual example of an outsourced contract being subcontracted back to a public organisation.

The decision has prompted questions from MPs over whether it represents value for public money for the state to contract work to a private company, if the company then in turn outsources the work back to the state sector...

Remember of course that the rationale/excuse for asking ATOS to do these assessments was that "We can't trust GPs and people working in the NHS, 'cos they will classify someone as "disabled" at the drop of a pin, so in order to make sure the new PIP "works" we have to establish ahem a "fair and objective test" and get the private sector to administer it" suddenly goes all the way around to "We are paying that private sector provider so much it is now sub-contracting the work back to the NHS" where, if we are to believe what we are told, those tests will be carried out by the very people it was thought shouldn't be let anywhere near them".

But I suppose the NHS staff doing the assessments will have to be told whether they are doing the assessment:
- actual purposes of treatment or for medical reasons,
- under the old softer criteria, or
- under the shiny new PIP criteria for ATOS, in which case the general rule is that everybody is fit and healthy and capable of working.