The NHS has moved to outsource a wide range of front-line services valued at £1.2 billion, placing services including end-of-life care and cancer treatment up for long term tender.

The outsourced services are due to start in the July of next year and will be focused across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent, including services at hospitals, hospices and home care.

The move to privatise NHS services represents one of the largest and wide-ranging outsourcing programmes in the UK care sector.

The move comes as the NHS seeks to reduce a £30 billion shortfall over the next seven years, with many trusts seeing little alternative to achieving savings other than the privatisation of services.

The success of the outsourced program Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent is likely to be closely watched by other trusts and as a blueprint for future NHS privatisation programs.

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