DEFINITELY a heated debate is needed on the future of the NHS – Serious concerns (Keighley News, January 4).

The proposal by the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust to set-up a subsidiary company as a ‘provider’ for hospital facilities and procurement services is just one part of Tory long-term policy to convert the NHS into a US-style private insurance system.

This latest austerity effort in Airedale is intended to cut costs, not through tendering out the services to the lowest priced contractor but through cutting the rights and entitlements of the next generation of workers.

Costs are to be partly covered by a claim against paying VAT. In economic terms this simply transfers the budget within Government departments and will have zero impact on the wider economy. We must expect that the managers of the subsidiary will enjoy a large pay increase.

Will this ‘quasi-privatisation’ work? An evaluation study on three decades of reform efforts in the central civil service (cf Hood.C 2015 A Government that Worked Better and Cost Less?) found no evidence that any of the privatisation and outsourcing measures have led to significant cost reductions or efficiency gains.

No wonder the Airedale Hospital trust does not want to disclose “commercially sensitive information” concerning the finances of the subsidiary company. It is a direct attack on NHS employees but a sneaky one disguised as structural reform.

The trust spokesman describes the measures as a “people strategy” that benefits local people, although this is not set out in the trust’s plans for 2017/18.

A “people strategy” that presents itself as progress but results in cuts to workers pay is worthy of a George Orwell Award. A fake strategy indeed.

SIMON WATT Waterside Silsden