{"id":21642,"date":"2013-07-19T07:33:57","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T06:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=21642"},"modified":"2013-07-19T07:33:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T06:33:57","slug":"the-sale-of-nhs-blood-plasma-services-is-another-example-of-the-cowardly-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/07\/19\/the-sale-of-nhs-blood-plasma-services-is-another-example-of-the-cowardly-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The sale of NHS blood plasma services is another example of the cowardly state"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2013\/jul\/18\/nhs-privatising-gallops-on\" target=\"_blank\">Polly Toynbee has noted this morning<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The symbolism runs deep into the veins of the NHS. The government on Thursday sold off the NHS-owned company supplying safe blood plasma on which thousands depend. It was\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/1117327\/romney-firm-to-buy-nhs-supplier-in-200m-deal\">sold to a US private equity firm with a reputation for aggressive asset-stripping. Bain Capital<\/a>\u00a0owns Burger King, Domino's Pizza, Dunkin' Donuts and much else. Its predatory history dogged Bain's founder,\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/mittromney\">Mitt Romney<\/a>, throughout the US election.<\/p>\n<p>After contamination by brain disease variant\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/mediacentre\/factsheets\/fs180\/en\/\">CJD, sourcing plasma from UK donors was banned in 1999<\/a>, so the NHS purchased its own supplier \u2014 PRUK \u2014 to regulate quality and safety itself. Campaigners fought to stop a sell-off to a profit-hungry business beyond NHS control. Alarming footnote: I rang the Department of Health press office to find out more, but instead of returning my call I was outsourced \u2014 I got a call from Bain's PR company instead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Not only has an essential service been sold - without good reason - but even the justification for it has been sold.<\/p>\n<p>Such is the nature of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/03\/06\/the-cowardly-state-is-in-disarray-we-need-the-courageous-alternative\/\" target=\"_blank\">cowardly state<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We need the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.searchingfinance.com\/products\/soon-to-be-published\/the-courageous-state-rethinking-economics-society-and-the-role-of-government.html\" target=\"_blank\">courageous alternative<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Polly Toynbee has noted this morning: The symbolism runs deep into the veins of the NHS. The government on Thursday sold off the NHS-owned<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/07\/19\/the-sale-of-nhs-blood-plasma-services-is-another-example-of-the-cowardly-state\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}