THE number of operations bungled by private firms working for the NHS has doubled as health care privatisation rapidly increases.
In the past year more than 100 patients suffered unnecessary pain and were left with broken bones, injured joints or damaged nerves. Some needed further ops to patch up the mistakes.
And failures by privately run NHS contractors cost taxpayers £6million in damages in 2012-2013 alone.
Figures unearthed by the Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act show that in 2009 – the year before the Coalition came to power – the number of NHS patients hit by private firms’ poor care was 47.
Oncologist Clive Peedell, co-leader of the National Health Action party, said the figures were clear evidence of increasing privatisation and it was vital for firms delivering NHS services to be “properly scrutinised”.
Shadow Health Minister Andrew Gwynne warned things would only get worse, adding: “This bill is set to rise and rise in the Tories’ privatised NHS. Patients are paying the price of this sell-off.”
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