PRIVATE firms have pocketed an estimated £6.7 billion in profits on contracts paid for out of NHS budgets over the past dozen years — that’s over £10 million a week —  campaign group We Own It says.

And 78 per cent — £5.2bn — of those total profits are for contracts for services that could be provided in-house by the NHS.

Its analysis is based on 72,258 private contracts between January 2012 and May 2024.

We Own It is calling on the next government to deploy public funds more efficiently by ending outsourcing.

The group says that ending privatisation could more than triple Labour’s £2bn plan to create 40,000 new GP appointments per week, 700,000 new dentist appointments per year and double the NHS’s diagnostic capacity.

According to We Own It, 94 per cent of NHS outsourcing contracts for services will expire within the next five years, providing Labour with a major opportunity to reverse NHS privatisation if they win.

We Own It  lead campaigner Johnbosco Nwogbo said: “While millions are stuck on NHS waiting lists, private shareholders are taking out billions from NHS balance sheets.

“At a time when almost all parties are saying that money is tight, the need to keep every penny in the NHS has never been more pressing.

“Our analysis shows that Spire Healthcare, the biggest private hospital chain in Britain, has received NHS contracts worth a total of £518 million and made an estimated £17 million profit out of that.”

There will be a protest outside the private Spire London East Hospital in Ilford North, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting’s constituency, at noon today.