23 November 2001
Health minister Hazel Blears said the trusts were part of NHS Plus, a new network selling occupational health services to the private sector. The launch of the network comes hard on the heels of the government's pledge to give top-performing trusts freedom to set up trading arms to exploit innovations or top-class services.
'Working with the private sector is not a one-way arrangement,' Blears insisted. 'NHS Plus will help the NHS reap the rewards of its own innovation with income generated from providing occupational health services, such as immunisation, pre-employment screening and insurance medicals for businesses, being reinvested back into the NHS at no cost to the taxpayer.'
The minister insisted that NHS Plus would not mean a decline in occupational health services for health service staff, which are provided free.
'Before we improve the health of the workforce we need to ensure that NHS staff themselves are healthy. That is why we have asked NHS trust chief executives to guarantee occupational health services for trust staff before they join the NHS Plus network,' she added.
Costs to the private sector will vary according to location, the size of the organisation and type of work carried out.
For example, the department said, a small vehicle repair firm in Nottingham could be charged £32 per person, while a large engineering firm in London could be charged around £36 per staff member.
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