Alan Milburn is set to be handed a lead role in the running the Labour’s health ministry, prompting concerns over the involvement of private companies in the NHS.
Wes Streeting will appoint Milburn, who was a radical reformer of the NHS in his time in that post under Tony Blair, as the lead non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The move has ignited long-running feuds in the party over the involvement of private firms in the publically-funded health care sector.
Milburn is a longstanding adviser to Bridgepoint Capital, which owns Care UK – a large operator of care homes – and also PwC’s health practice.
He has also worked for Mars Incorporated, the chocolate maker, and Centene Corporation, a US healthcare company. He was also on the board of Huma, a digital healthcare company, until last year.
Keep Our NHS Public, a campaign group, said giving Milburn a key role in developing policy around the NHS would show that Labour plans to follow the Tories in “undermining it” through giving private healthcare a significant role in providing NHS care and reducing delays, which Streeting supports, as happened when Milburn was the health secretary.
“Wes Streeting has made it clear that he intends to promote a two-tier health service by sending patients to the private sector. This is an imitation of Alan Milburn’s approach under New Labour when he extended outsourcing of services and sought to build a market in health care,” said Dr John Puntis, the group’s co-chair.
“Milburn now returning to a key position of influence indicates that Labour seeks to repeat the mistakes of the past, no doubt at the behest of those businesses that will profit, and to continue the Conservatives’ strategy of undermining the NHS through underfunding, while flying the famous banner of ‘reform’.”
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