NHS trusts spend at least £1.8 billion a year on private contracts, GMB research revealed yesterday ahead of its annual congress in Brighton today, where it is expected to call for an end to outsourcing.

The union sent freedom of information requests on the practice to more than 200 trusts with just over half responding — meaning the true figure is likely to be far higher. 

And a separate investigation found that ambulance trusts across England have spent £290 million on private ambulances over the past three years. 

Total annual spend has almost doubled since 2021-22. 

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was accused in January of “feeding the parasite” when he announced the government would aim to increase private finance’s role in cutting NHS England waiting lists by 20 per cent.

Ambulance worker Mo Akbar will tell delegates: “This Labour government will have a crisis of legitimacy if they choose a path of further privatisation of the NHS, which would put at risk the sense of the collectivism that is at the heart of our health service.

“We must bring all outsourced services like cleaning, catering and facilities back in-house. We demand real terms restorative pay from 14 years of brutal austerity.  

“Workers and communities should have more say in how the NHS is run, ensuring decisions focus on patient care, not financial targets. 

“Health outcomes are tied to poverty, housing, and working conditions, so NHS rebuilding must also address these inequalities.”

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr Tony O’Sullivan said private firms are taking as much as 30 to 40 per cent profit from their NHS contracts, “every penny of which detracts from the rebuilding of the NHS” after Tory austerity and more than 25 years of outsourcing.

Slamming Health Secretary Wes Streeting for abandoning East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation NHS Trust’s Unison workers in Colchester to Sodexo outsourcing from this April, he said: “GMB’s proposed challenge to the government is so important now, demanding that it deliver on its repeated pledges of ‘radical insourcing’ of public sources and curbing of outsourcing. 

“The labour movement should take heart from past union victories against outsourcing ... campaigners will stand with GMB and other health unions all the way.”