BRADFORD East MP Imran Hussain has once again called for plans for Bradford’s hospitals to establish private companies to be scrapped.

The Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Trust will make a decision on the controversial proposals at a board meeting next month.

The Trust, which runs both the BRI and St Luke’s Hospital, announced in January that they planned to pursue plans to create a private company to run services such as cleaning, porters and catering in the two hospitals, leading to criticism and opposition from politicians, including Mr Hussain, who has called them a threat to patient safety and staff rights.

Mr Hussain has written to the Trust's Chief Executive, Clive Kay, to say the Trust must not create a "two-tier workforce."

He has also echoed concerns of UNISON who represent staff at the Trust, saying that past experience of privatisation in the NHS shows that any savings will be entirely short term.

Mr Hussain further raised concerns that policies such as those proposed by the Trust will negatively affect staff morale and makes the NHS a less attractive workplace.

Speaking on the Trust’s pushing back the board decision establishing a wholly owned subsidiary company from March to July, Mr Hussain said: "In July the Bradford NHS Trust board will get the chance to vote down these plans and stop another fragmentation of our NHS, and I hope that in the interests of patient safety and NHS staff, they do the right thing and choose to not take them forward, not duck the decision and push it back again.

“Bradford NHS Trust may say that the subsidiary company that they establish will still be owned by the Trust, but there is nothing preventing them from selling it on to a private company at a later date to turn a quick profit, further eroding staff rights and putting patients at risk, and I have been given no assurances that this is not an option for the Trust.

“I fully support staff at the Trust in their efforts to protect their working rights, the rights of their colleagues and the safety of the hospital, but I hope that we will not reach that stage and Bradford NHS Trust will see that their plans are not in the public interest and have the support of no one but the private companies that will start circling the hospital.”

A spokesperson for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust continues to consider a range of options for enhancing the quality of services for patients and securing efficiencies. No decision has yet been made about the best way forward; we expect to bring this issue to the Trust Board in July.”