Page 58 - BHTA 100 years

Level playing elds,
Early Day Motion,
‘robust’ meetings, changes in the marketplace...
The desire for ‘level playing elds’ was once more on the agenda in 1995, with the Association looking closely at in-house NHS units and how they competed with private companies. In fact, this was the fourth year of lobbying on this issue. A report, produced by John Hutton, had been commissioned by a BSTA working group.
In response, the NHS Executive had issued a Health Service Guideline concerning NHS Trading Agencies in which it stated – ‘Ministers are clear that the NHS at each level should focus its management effort and resources on core statutory healthcare functions; it follows that signi cant levels of trading in non-core of business support services should normally be conducted in the commercial sector’.
Stephen Blatchford, Managing Director of Chas A Blatchford & Sons Ltd wrote at the time: “I believe that BSTA can view this as a signi cant victory following the hard work we have put in raising the issue in the public domain. Let us hope that these guidelines lead to more sense in the way that NHS in-house units compete with outside private companies.”
In February of this year, 220 MP’s signed an Early Day Motion which called for – ‘The provision of indoor/outdoor powered wheelchairs to all permanently disabled adults and children requiring them for independent mobility, in accordance with
BHTA 100 years