Published on July 19th, 2013 | by James Whittaker

UKs blood supply to be sold to US private equity firm co-founded by Mitt Romney
The government has decided to privatise the supplier of blood to the NHS, and sell it to Bain Capital. The British public tends not to like the word privatisation, especially when the acronym NHS is placed in front of it. Which is why it would seem highly unlikely that the British public will be warming to the latest NHS development that the union Unite has described as the thin end of the privatization wedge. The state-owned blood supplier to the NHS is to be sold to Bain Capital, the US private equity firm that was founded by the former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney (the guy that tied his dog to his car roof) in a deal worth an estimated 230m. Liquid bloody gold eh? Bain will take a majority stake of 80% in Plasma Resources UK (PRUK) whilst the government will grip on to a 20% share. Ministers were reportedly cautious about selling PRUK but decided it was the best value for money. However, the former health minister Lord Owen who said David Cameron would be foolish to sell it off, told Planet Ivy, Its hard to conceive of a worse outcome for a sale of this particularly sensitive national health asset than a private equity company with none of the safeguards in terms of governance of a publicly quoted company and being answerable to shareholders. Private equity has a useful function, as I saw in years past on the advisory board of Terra Firma, but Bain Capital should not have been chosen for this sale. Is there no limit to what and how this coalition government will privatise? We in this country should do everything in our power to avoid being reliant on open market tendering procedures for NHS patients. Lord Owen said he was concerned because The worldwide plasma supply line has been in the past contaminated and I fear it will almost certainly continue to be contaminated.

We in this country should do everything in our power to avoid being reliant on open market tendering procedures for NHS patients. However only around 20% of blood collected from UK donors is actually used in hospitals, the remainder is used for research. So where does the over 80% of our blood supply come from? It comes from America, where donors are paid up to $25 for each donation. This is where it becomes a little more alarming. Lucy Reynolds from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine wrote an academic paper arguing against the sale of PRUK in which she said: Plasma supplies have a long record of being operated on a not-for-profit basis, using voluntary donors where all the necessary checks take place. The difference with a commercial firm is that they will want to have as many donors as possible and be looking to secure large profits first and foremostThis amounts to the government abandoning UK blood products users to tender mercies of the cheapest supplier. They did say this sale would be the best value for money. It looks like David Cameron and Nick Clegg are tiptoeing on the edge of a very slippery slope to a privatised NHS daring each other to jump first. However it may be the secretary of state for health, Jeremy Hunt, who persuades them to all jump down together singing Were the three best friends that anybody could have. Planet Ivy was shown a letter to Lord Owen from the health secretary saying, We have carefully examined the strategic options that will best allow the company to grow and be successful in an established and highly competitive global industry, and to fulfill its potential as part of the strategically important bio-science sector of the UK economy. Our conclusion is that this route will best meet those requirements. The future of the NHS appears uncertain and in times of economic struggle it seems that the NHS is the most valuable asset the UK has to sell off to the highest bidder. With 80% of our blood supply already being imported in on US cargo how long will it really be until the NHS is transformed in to an eBay-like medical service? But dont let your blood boil too much it may just reduce its worth. Tags: Blood supply, Coalition, mitt romney, NHS, US