With the New Year in full swing, TheStoneClub was In Conversation With Caroline Shaw, Chief Executive of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Europe’s largest cancer centre, on Tuesday, January 10.

The theme: Do the current NHS reforms constitute privatisation through the back door?

Caroline was one of the youngest ever female NHS chief executives when she took up her role in September 2005. Having worked in the healthcare industry for 27 years, she brought strong ‘on the ground’ experience from her early career as a midwife.

She took the Christie Hospital to Foundation Trust status within twelve months and was subsequently approached to advise the Department of Health on failing trusts.

With this foundation model seemingly the future, TheStoneClub asked what greater degrees of independence mean for the NHS, and what the implications are for privatisation.

In short, no one knows. Even worse, no one seems to have the same opinion! However, there were some issues that Caroline picked up on as integral to the success or failure of the proposed reforms: the end of Primary Care Trusts, the potentially flawed argument of choice (with what the Department of Health wants and what patients want often diverging), and the nature of competition affecting public sector training.

Amongst all this confusion and change, the reality is simple: local people simply want their local hospitals to run well.

However, with privatisation comes change and the pressing issue is whether the proposed reforms can guarantee a genuine improvement in care, whilst causing minimal disruption.

Caroline’s response was measured, and sought to see first what the results of the Lords amendments would bring to the proposals.