NHS goes up for sale on A&E-Bay 01/04/11

NHS hospitals and their contents including hundreds of thousands of beds, scanners, X-ray equipment, incubators, bedpans, syringes, operating theatre equipment, pacemakers, surgical instruments and stethoscopes are up for sale on a&e- bay*,as a result of the Government's Health and Social Care Bill.

The Bill paves the way for the privatisation of the NHS with big multinational private health companies such as Care UK, Bupa and United Healthcare, first in line for the bidding. The massive sale is likely to clear the national debt and enable the Government to re-introduce tax breaks for the super-rich and to make this year a bumper bonus bonanza for banking bosses.

When the NHS went up for sale at midnight it sparked a bidding frenzy with private companies eager to get a piece of the NHS on the cheap.

Doctors, nurses, patients, MPs, health experts and unions, including UNISON are outraged at the plans. General secretary, Dave Prentis said:

"The Health and Social Care Bill was always a recipe for privatisation. Taking the cap off the number of private patients a hospital can treat, tipped the balance forever in favour of those people with the money to jump the queue and pay for treatment. The NHS was once the envy of the world, it is being treated more like a bargain basement lot.

"Handing over £80bn of taxpayers' money to GPs was a terrible risk and we now know that while private companies are picking up bargains, NHS patients are paying a heavy price.

Some members of the public have also put in bids, one early bidder, Cherry Picker, said: "I am going to miss the NHS so I though I would try and get some of the best bits as a memento.

"Many of my family, including myself, owe our lives to the NHS. I remember the care and attention I got when I was in a serious accident, I don't know what I will do if I get ill again. The premiums for private insurance are way beyond my reach because of my accident.

"I know now I made a serious mistake when I voted for the Lib Dems, but I thought they would put a stop to the worst of the Tory excesses - how wrong can you be?"