WIDEREACHING plans to turn the district's Primary Care Trust into a private company have been condemned by a public sector union.

NHS West Essex is beginning discussions with staff to encourage them to help turn their employer into a not-for-profit private company.

The new company would be able to buy in services from private companies as well as the NHS.

The plans are part of the nationwide Government scheme Transforming Community Services to allow PCTs greater flexibility.

NHS West Essex is the only PCT in the county to go down a potential private company route, and its plans have been condemned by trade union Unison.

Unison regional officer Nick Bradley said: “At the moment PCTs are part of the NHS and answerable locally. Crucially a private company wouldn't be necessarily answerable to the public and the Government - it would be answerable to a private company. I cant see how that could be any benefit to the NHS or how it would make services better. All it does is start to break up the NHS.”

He added: “It puts the PCT in a very vulnerable situation. If it gets into financial difficulty what is it going to do? This is the beginning of the end of the NHS. You will get large companies in who are out to make large profits. The way they make that large profit is either through less people or lower wages. This is bonkers. It doesn't make any sense.”

Preliminary discussion of the plans, which will affect all 950 staff employed by NHS West Essex is due to take place tomorrow (Wednesday, September 9) at the Hilton Hotel, Stansted.

NHS West Essex has stressed that any plans will be long-term and involve extensive public consultation.

Vince McCabe managing director for community health services said: “The meeting at Stansted on September 9 marks the start of three months consultation with our staff on the possibility of setting up such a company in the form of a social enterprise, capable of integrating community and primary care services to improve patients’ experience of their local NHS.

“While the social enterprise would be constituted as a private company, it would remain an NHS provider within the NHS family just in the way GPs are. It would provide services under NHS contracts, working to NHS values and with the NHS identity.”