The problems hospitals are now experiencing with MRSA and MSSA infections are a legacy of Tory Government policies from the Seventies
and Eighties, when the benefits of privatisation were actively promoted as the answer to funding problems.
I've never been able to understand why privatising a company is supposed to be more beneficial than the public sector running it, particularly as a private company has to make a profit, which is likely to increase costs, not reduce them.
I believe it works like this - a hospital (or any other public-service body) decides the cost of running its own cleaning (or catering, etc) service is too high.
It works out how much it costs to run, then invites outside firms to tender for the contract and the lowest estimate usually wins - certainly, the winner will have bid a lot less than it cost the public body to run the service.
Once the new contractor takes over, it becomes obvious to them it is impossible to run the business as it was and make a profit.
They cannot reduce the staff or wage bill as they will have taken on all the old staff under TUPE regs (basically, no changes to pay and conditions for a period of time.)
The only thing they can try to economise on is the standard of service they provide and so, very gradually, cleaners aren't replaced as they leave and quality cleaning products are replaced by cheaper and inferior alternatives etc.
By the time the contract is up for renewal, every three to five years, standards have already dropped to an unacceptable level so there is every chance a different firm will win the contract and the whole process will start again.
Within ten to 15 years, the standards which originally existed are a distant memory.
Also, because the job no longer offers security, the types of people likely to be interested in doing it are those wanting casual work to make a bit of extra money and with no particular reason to feel pride in what they do.
Morale is low because the work is hard, badly paid and the workforce subject to constant change.
Unfortunately, it is all about money and targets.
Until the powers-that-be accept public services cannot be run at a profit and scrap cost-cutting, targets and bureaucrats, we are unlikely to see any major improvements.
-Jenny Ray, Brighton
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