"Since the year 2000 successive British governments have pushed ahead with the transformation of the National Health Service into a health care market with a strong component of for-profit provision. Focusing on the crucial first step in the privatisation of clinical services, this article examines how the four key requirements for the The new gold rush: the new multinationals and the commodification of public sector work commodification of a public service were fulfilled – first, breaking up health care into standardised units that could be priced; second, inducing the public to use the new commodified services; third, inducing the workforce to work for shareholders; and fourth, getting the state to underwrite the risk involved. What emerges is a story of the deep penetration of the UK state by the private health care industry, including major players with a serious history of fraud."

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