Outlook sound scans were discovered by inspectors), Ashford & St peters in Middlesex, Portsmouth and the new Darenth Valley Hospital in Dartford - have been sacrificed on Milburn's altar of modernisation.
But while high-flying NHS managers may be seen as playing a useful role in reviving flagging NHS Trusts, it does not seem at all likely that private sector managers could make much impact on failing systems of care in Trusts that cannot cope.
As Milburn's former boss Frank Dobson has pointed out, private hospitals in this country are extremely small compared with NHS Trusts, and very narrow in the range of elective services they offer. Writing in the Independent, and arguing against any further Sending in new managers to shout at demoralised staff is unlikely to solve problems private sector involvement, Dobbo points out that the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, for example, has as many Intensive Care Unit beds as the total number beds in most private hospitals: and that its large and complex combination of medical, nursing and support staff cannot be simply ordered into performing better.
Private hospitals Milburn's insistence on the use of private hospital beds -whether in Britain or France -to treat NHS patients has also come under growing scrutiny. Given the tiny size of the private sector compared with the NHS (70,000 NHS operations in private hospitals last year, compared with over 6 million NHS operations), such deals are unlikely to be much more Than a recor one ta chiefs seeking to meet waiting list targets.
But even these small numbers of operations are very expensive. This seems to be why health chiefs steadfastly refuse to say how much many of the schemes are costing. Even if the potential knock-on effects of an expanding private sector on NHS staffing problems could be ignored, there is no evidence that such deals represent value for money.
This is unlikely to deter Mr Milburn, who is also having to fend off a growing body of evidence that his favoured way of funding new hospitals through the Private Finance initiative represents rotten value for money.
Ministers challengea to show that PFi did in fact represent good value had until January relied upon an "independent" report drawn up for the Treasury by Enron's accoun-