Speaking on the plans for Bradford Royal Infirmary to set up a private business to supply facilities and procurement at the hospital, Imran said:

“There is a clear ideological agenda driven by this Tory Government to hand vital public services over to the private sector, and these plans by the BRI to set up a private business shows this privatisation by the back door in action, with the hospital opening up to selling off health care services in Bradford to private companies motivated by the goal of making a profit, a goal which will cause care and services, and ultimately patients, to suffer.

“The NHS was recently forced to hand over a large payout to private company, Virgin Care after they lost out on a contract, and I am deeply concerned that if the BRI continues down this path of letting private companies operate in Bradford’s healthcare system in the way the Government wants, they too will face the prospect of backlashes from private companies, putting the already cash-strapped NHS in greater danger.

“Not only will these plans and allowing more private companies to operate in the NHS have a detrimental impact on patient care, they will also create a disastrous two-tier system that will see staff employed by the private company lose the employment and pension benefits they previously enjoyed, and the BRI must reverse their plans and recognise that there is no appetite in Bradford for private companies in our NHS, or risk walking into the disaster that this move will be.

“Instead of pushing hospitals into plans to privatise ever greater parts of their services, the Government must take real measures to tackle the crisis in our NHS that sees wards running at full capacity, ambulances backed up, cancelled operations and patients waiting for hours on trolleys by ditching their ideological motivations and delivering the funding hospitals need and the pay rise staff deserve.”