The story's got no traction. As discussed Chez Armsteen this evening, the media all have health insurance, .

Core children's health services in Devon may be about to be privatised in a move critics have warned is a foretaste of the breaking up of the NHS that will take place when the government's health and social care bill becomes law.

The Guardian has learned that NHS Devon and Devon county council have shortlisted bids led by two private, profit-making companies – Serco and Virgin Care – to provide a large range of frontline services for children across the county, including some of the most sensitive care for highly vulnerable children and families, such as child protection, treatment for mentally ill children and adolescents, therapy and respite care for those with disabilities, health visiting, and palliative nursing for dying children.
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The outsourcing of such a large and complex part of NHS services will be highly controversial. Opponents of the health secretary, Andrew Lansley's reforms have argued that the bill, now in its final stages in parliament, will lead to rapid privatisation of the NHS and the end of universal free public provision.

A spokesman for Lansley said the Devon bid was an example of how current reforms were following the direction of travel for the NHS set long before the current government. "We support patient choices and whoever is best getting the contracts. We reject the idea that because a private company might get it, it is privatisation," he said, pointing out that services would still be free to use and funded out of taxation.

Neither of the two private companies in the Devon bids has experience of running specialist children's health services for the NHS.

Virgin Care ffs, it's beyond satire. Branson's done such a bang-up job with the trains, who better to take responsibility for children's medical care? It seems as if every day is April 1st in Tory Britain.

Rather than focusing on the gradual introduction of ‘market reforms’ and public-private partnerships within the NHS system, an alternative strategy would seek to bypass the NHS by liberating the private healthcare sector such that the NHS became less and less relevant as more and more people opted out of state provision to avoid long waiting lists and substandard care. This option has the potential to create a virtuous circle – by reducing burdens on the NHS, taxes could be cut, wealth created, and more people would be able to afford private healthcare, reducing the NHS burden still further and gradually undermining its political base.

Perhaps most importantly, the compulsory licensing of medical professionals should be abolished. Anyone should be at liberty to practice as a doctor or nurse, with patients relying on brand names or competing voluntary associations to ensure quality. Ending current restrictive practices is essential to enable private firms to increase productivity in the sector.

Burdensome drug licensing regulations should be rescinded. Instead, the testing of new drugs should be left to private firms and free markets. Reputable companies would have strong economic incentives to ensure the safety of their products, while there would also be far more freedom for experimentation and innovation by new market entrants, with huge potential benefits for patients.

Legal reforms could enable patients to waive their right to clinical negligence claims.