Milburn to meet foreign healthcare providers

Alan Milburn will push forward plans to cut NHS waiting lists by inviting private healthcare providers from the Continent to build fast-track surgery units in England.

Today, the Secretary of State for Health will meet representatives of six companies who hope to win contracts to provide routine operations, such as hip replacements and cataract removals, for NHS patients.

Mr Milburn wants foreign companies to become a permanent feature of the NHS by building treatment centres that would be staffed by foreign surgeons and nurses.

After today's meeting, he will publish a prospectus outlining how private-sector providers will have to comply with the principles of the NHS. The prospectus will say: "It is an explicit objective of government health policy to shift towards greater plurality and diversity in the delivery of elective surgery services."

Among the operators expected to meet Mr Milburn are Germedic and Germanmedicine, both German, and the Swiss-based Opthamology Network Organisation.

The onus will be on the companies to provide, manage and operate the centres,. The contractors will also be required to deliver high levels of productivity, provide real increases in clinical staff by bringing in professionals from abroad and provide value for money with costs that are competitive with those in the NHS.

¿ Removing unnecessary red tape could free up about 3.2 million GP appointments in the next two years and improve patients' access to doctors, a report out today says. The Cabinet Office's regulatory impact unit looked at the effect on GPs of removing paperwork for sick notes, repeat prescriptions, housing reports and disability benefit.