Privatisation could turn the NHS into a commercial brand like Nike, one of the country's top doctors warned yesterday.
John Ashton, regional director of public health in the north-west, spoke out about his fears for the future on his last day in the job, following his resignation in July. Professor Ashton predicted that, if the government persisted in increasing the role of the private sector, the UK would end up with a two-tier health service offering better care for the well-off and basic care for the rest.
"I am concerned we don't just let the private sector providers cater for the profitable big parts of health care so we finish up with the two standards, with middle classes paying for what they want while everyone else ends up with the bog standard care," he said.
"The NHS should not just become a brand like Nike with everything done by private sector but branded NHS."
Prof Ashton has said he is leaving his high-profile job because he cannot face the fifth reorganisation of his department. Major restructuring was announced in May, with a halving of the number of primary care trusts to 152 by October and a reduction in strategic health authorities from 29 to 10. In July he told the BBC's You and Yours programme that in each of the reorganisations in the past 13 years, public health had lost out.
On his last day in the job yesterday, his criticisms went to the heart of the government's NHS reforms, attacking the creation of the flagship foundation trusts - designated hospitals which are given more financial and managerial freedom - as a return to the pre-1948 days of hosp-itals operating independently. "They will compete with each for work and money. Some will fail, some will prosper," he said.
He also feared people would lose confidence in the health service when they saw nurses losing their jobs, as was now happening because of cutbacks.
A Department of Health spokeswoman denied the NHS was becoming privatised. "We will never abandon the principle that healthcare should be free at the point of need, not based on ability to pay."
