The system is supposed to deliver "efficiency savings", £2.4 billion pounds of them. In reality, supplies have been rationed and the country left unprepared.

This has severely undermined the national effort to protect our NHS and care staff and patients. We need those who stand behind our NHS to shout about this.

There are plenty of “bad apples” in the story – companies whose track record, philosophy, and priorities mean that they shouldn’t have been entrusted with the responsibilities they were given. 

Like Unipart, who are responsible for delivering PPE through its £730 million NHS logistics contract. Unipart’s CEO promised to ‘cure the NHS’ in 2013 but its “just in time” approach goes against the need to stockpile medical goods, such as PPE.

Or the crisis cell in the Cabinet office run by Deloitte, that failed to respond to the 8,000 frustrated emails from would-be suppliers.

But this isn’t just a story about bad apples (though there are so many more stories to tell). It is a story of a deeply flawed system that has helped turn the pandemic into an utter disaster, one which creates a range of risks.

It's thanks to the work of David Hall of PSIRU, John Lister of The Lowdown and Helen Mercer, a senior lecturer of University of Greenwich now retired, that these scandals have come to light now.

To share your feelings about the privatisation of our NHS, and all the pain and distress this has caused for the people of this country, read our report summary here, and please do share articles on the report far and wide!

We've had coverage from The Mirror, the New European, The Canary, and The Morning Star on this and we've written a piece for Tribune too!

These are difficult times. Thank you so much for your support, for all the action you're taking and for believing in our NHS. Thank you to all of you who donate - you've made this report possible.