Franchising (Hansard, 20 January 2004)

§ 14. Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)
What is his definition of franchising in relation to hospitals and health trusts. [148798]

§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton)
NHS franchising is a way of introducing new senior management teams to poorly performing NHS organisations as a means of improving their performance.

§ Mr. Gray
We are all in favour of improving performance. However, when the Royal United hospital in Bath was failing and it was announced that senior management was to be franchised, that was widely perceived as being a kind of stealth privatisation, the senior management all resigned, and the franchise proposals were pulled, yet when the chief executive of the Kennet and North Wiltshire primary care trust resigned through overwork and stress, it was announced that her job was to be franchised, which apparently means a job-sharing agreement with the next-door PCT. Is franchising privatisation or job-sharing—or is it just new Labour drivel?

§ Mr. Hutton
None of the above. What a load of complete poppycock from the hon. Gentleman, who has nothing positive to say about the national health service. What happened in Bath and Bristol took place on the advice of the chief executive of the strategic health authority. The hon. Gentleman and his motley crew of Front Benchers are always complaining about micro-management by Ministers, but this was a case of the local NHS deciding how it wanted to proceed, and that is precisely how it should be done. As for the hon. Gentleman's local primary care trust, I agree—this is one issue on which I can agree with him—that we have to tackle poor performance, which we are doing by looking to strengthen management teams.
1213 The suggestion that franchising is privatisation is a complete red herring. The ownership of trusts stays with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, the trust boards remain in place, and NHS patients will continue to receive a service that is free at the point of need. Even in the hon. Gentleman's world, that cannot be described as privatisation.