TY - JOUR T1 - Independent Sector Treatment Centres: a leap in the dark JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 250 LP - 252 VL - 57 IS - 536 AU - Mike Squires Y1 - 2007/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/57/536/250.abstract N2 - The recently published House of Commons' Health Committee's report on Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs), is yet another indictment of the introduction of privatisation into the NHS.The committee, examined both the Phase 1 implementation of ISTCs and some of the changes that had been made in Phase 2. Its brief was to examine the effect of ISTCs on NHS services and their effectiveness in terms of value for money, reduced waiting times for elective surgery, increased innovation, and improved training for medical staff.The report's conclusions were almost entirely negative. Although there had been a great deal of hype associated with the establishment of ISTCs, the committee found they had achieved very few of the goals that they had been set. The report concluded that ‘ISTCs had not made a major direct contribution to increasing capacity’ (page 3), that they were ‘not necessarily more efficient than NHS treatment centres’ (page 3) and that there was ‘no convincing evidence’ (page 3) that they were driving the adoption of innovative practice in the NHS. Furthermore, the committee cast significant doubts on the claim that ISTCs provide value for money but were unable to make a firm judgement because the Department of Health would not release to them important financial information concerning the ISTCs, because of alleged ‘commercial confidentiality’ (page 4). In conducting its investigation, the MPs were denied access to information on a number of occasions by senior figures in the Department of Health.The establishment of ISTCsAt the start of 2002, the Department of Health announced a programme of building NHS Diagnostic and Treatment Centres (DTCs) in order to reduce patient waiting times and provide more diagnostic centres in the community. Forty-six centres were planned and it was decided that each centre would receive funding according to ‘the number of patients seen’ (page … ER -