David Cameron ready to put chunks of NHS up for sale, says Labour

Labour has accused David Cameron of being willing to put "large chunks of the NHS up for sale" before a speech on Monday in which the prime minister will outline plans to increase collaboration between the health service and the life sciences industry.

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said he was worried about the commercialisation of the NHS after it was revealed that Cameron's plans could involve private companies getting access to patient records and other NHS data.

Cameron will say he wants the NHS to be "working hand-in-glove with industry as the fastest adopter of new ideas in the world". He will argue that this could benefit patients as well as the £50bn life sciences industry, described by Number 10 as the third largest contributor to economic growth in the UK.

Britain already has a good record in medical innovation, but Cameron will signal that he wants to make it easier for drug companies to run clinical trials in hospitals and to benefit from the NHS's vast collection of patient data.

He will announce a £180m "catalyst fund" to help develop projects until they attract outside investment. Universities and small and medium-sized firms will be able to bid for money from the fund.

And he will announce a scheme that would give seriously ill patients access to drugs around a year before they were licenced for general use.

"The most crucial, fundamental thing we're doing is opening up the NHS to new ideas," Cameron will say. "I want the great discoveries of the next decade happening in British labs, the new technologies born in British start-ups."

His speech will coincide with the publication of a life sciences strategy from the Department for Business and a review of innovation in the NHS from David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive.

Burnham said that in principle he was not opposed to the idea of private firms getting access to some NHS data. But he said the government had to "tread carefully" in this area, and that he was concerned about Cameron's willingness to open up the NHS to the private sector. "[Cameron] sees no limit on the involvement of the private sector and says he wants it to be a 'fantastic business'. In his desperation to develop a credible industrial strategy, he seems willing to put large chunks of our NHS up for sale."

Roger Gross, from the pressure group Patient Concern, said that allowing private firms access to NHS data would mean "the death of patient confidentiality". Patient Concern resigned from a Department of Health consultation on the plan.

""We understand GP surgeries will have the right to refuse to release their patients' records, but whether patients will ever be told what is happening, let alone have the choice to protect their privacy, is still unclear," Gross said.