Social enterprises are being allowed to take over £900 million of NHS services without safeguards to ensure they save the taxpayer money and will not go bust, a watchdog has warned.

And the high-profile initiative is at risk of being undermined by the Government’s own plans to increase competition within the health service, it suggested.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found the “many risks” involved in handing control to bodies set up by groups of staff were not being adequately addressed by the Department of Health (DoH).

Vague contracts failed to require them to deliver better value than alternative providers and little provision had been made to deal with them failing, the NAO report said. Insufficient attention had also been given to the consequences of the groups going bust when they were forced to compete more widely with the private sector under NHS reform plans

..more at the Evening Standard

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Audit Office slams 'risks' pushed by govt at NHS http://bit.ly/lSkiXt

2. Richard Murphy

   RT @libcon: Audit Office slams 'risks' pushed by govt at NHS http://bit.ly/lSkiXt Tories think anyone but gov't is better for NHS. Wrong!

3. Ceehaitch

   RT @libcon: Audit Office slams 'risks' pushed by govt at NHS http://bit.ly/lSkiXt Tories think anyone but gov't is better for NHS. Wrong!