CONTRACTS worth at least £67 million have been handed to private companies by the NHS in Nottinghamshire since 2013.
Figures given to the Post by the British Medical Journal show that of 316 contracts tendered by clinical commissioning groups in Nottinghamshire - which buy and plan health services - more than a third have gone to private firms.
Since a reorganisation of the NHS in 2013 a total of 109 contracts were won by private companies and 49 handed to social enterprises, local authorities and other organisations.
Critics say the figures show increasing privatisation of the health service but the government calls the figures "misleading" and says the health service only spends 6 per cent of its budget with private companies.
David Jones is chair of Nottingham Pensioners' Action Group and has recently campaigned against privatisation of the service. He said: "I'm very, very concerned. We had a rally back in October against privatisation and older people are very concerned about their surgeries being taken over and the whole direction of the NHS. My position is for the NHS to be a national health and care service free at the point of use and funded through taxation.
"At the end of the day where does the money come from to pay for the NHS? It comes from the taxpayer - any private company involved is taking taxpayers money for profit. That is of great concern."
The services which have been outsourced to private companies include chiropody, pain management services, physiotherapy, ultrasound, acute trauma and orthopedics, acute hospital services, pregnancy advice, eating disorders and bereavement support.
Chris Leslie MP - "The Secretary of State has dictated from Whitehall that our local NHS should be gradually subject to competition from the private sector in this way. I fundamentally believe that services should be based around what's best for patients rather than ideologically outsourcing for the sake of it.
"There's a difference between the NHS bringing in outside expertise from time to time which is an addition to core services - but this is replacing core services with private provision. I don't believe in this."
In October last year the Post revealed that a multi-million pound contract for cleaning, catering and security services had been lost by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust's in house team.
It means that the services at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital are now being run by private company Carillion.
And the treatment centre based at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre is run by private company Circle - which is paid more than £40 million a year.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "These figures are misleading - official NHS accounts show that use of the private sector amounts to only six pence in every pound the NHS spends, slowing the rate of increase to just one penny since May 2010. Charities, social enterprises and other providers of healthcare play an important role in the NHS, as they have done for many years."
The Department of Health's own figures show that healthcare spending on private sector providers has risen from 2.8 per cent in 2006/7 to 6.1 per cent this year.
A spokesperson for NHS Nottingham City CCG said the majority of the organisation's expenditure was with NHS providers and only a quarter went to profit-making companies. They said: "We adhere to strict procurement processes to make sure we are getting the best quality of care for patients and value for money for taxpayers."
