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With the expansion of private sector provision of NHS services previously supplied in-house, has come an increase in the movement of staff between the NHS and private companies - the so-called revolving door.

When staff below management level move from the public to the private sector in health it is usually involuntary and the result of privatisation. At management or executive level it is usually part of a poaching strategy by companies involved in privatisation of health services. Sometimes, movement the other way brings in private sector 'trouble-shooters' at senior level to use their 'expertise' to turn a public sector operation around. Often movement from the private to the public sector is temporary (sometimes a secondment).

Richard Osbourne

For example, Robert Osbourne briefly headed the NHS Private Finance Initiative Unit, on secondment from Tarmac

Richard Grainger

In a less common move, Richard Grainger, a former management consultant at Deloitte & Touche was appointed Director General of NHS Information Technology on a salary of £250,000 p.a. (more than the NHS Chief Executive).

Sheila Masters

Dame Sheila Masters (later Baroness Noakes) from KPMG was put in charge of review of NHS estate and recommended large scale sale of NHS land and property.

Alan Milburn

Following his resignation as Secretary of State for Health (to spend more time with his family) Alan Milburn took a post for £30,000 a year as an adviser to Bridgepoint, a venture capital firm heavily involved in financing private health care firms moving into the NHS. These firms include Alliance Medical, Match Group, Medica and Robina Care Group.

He took up the job with Bridgepoint in March 2004 and the advisory committee on business appointments told him that he could begin the job 'forthwith but for one year after leaving office he could not be personally involved in lobbying any government ministers or officials'. Milburn left the Department of Health in June 2003, so he was free to lobby from June 2004. On 29 June, Health Minister John Hutton announced that Alliance Medical had been awarded a contract to carry out 120,000 scans a year using mobile MRI units.

Bill Moyes

Between 1990 and 1994, Bill Moyes was Director of Strategy and Performance Management at the management executive of NHS Scotland and a key advisor of Edinburgh Infirmary's PFI project.

He joined the British Linen Bank (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of Scotland), initially on secondment, in 1994 and set up their PFI advisory and equity investment team, which focussed on large deals mainly in health. In 1996, he was appointed a Director of the BLB in 1996 and, when it was absorbed into the Bank of Scotland, he became Head of the Infrastructure Investments Department.

From 2000 to 2003 he was Director-General of the British Retail Consortium. In 2003 the Secretary of State appointed him to be the new (and powerful) independent regulator of the NHS.

Simon Stevens

Simon Stevens was Tony Blair's senior health policy adviser at No.10 and policy advisor to two Secretaries of State for Health at the Department of Health. According to Private Eye (9-22 July 2004) he pioneered the NHS piloting of an American model of care provided to elderly patients, designed by UnitedHealth Group. In 2004 he left to become president of the newly established European subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. It was set up by its US parent in order to build market share in the expanding European public health market.

Dr Penelope Dash

She was head of strategy and planning for the NHS from 1999 to 2001, working closely with Alan Milburn in the development of the NHS plan. She was also a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group for five years. She has worked for McKinsey management consultants and is a freelance advisor to various health related organisations including the NHS, pharmaceutical companies, private healthcare providers, start-up organisations, think tanks, charities, and McKinsey & Co. In the past she has worked for Kaiser Permanente, a private US health corporation. In the 7 February 2004 issue of the British Medical Journal she wrote a pro-privatisation piece on the new providers of healthcare in Britain. She is now on the advisory board for the independent regulator of foundation trusts.

Lord Hunt

Former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health. After leaving government in March 2003, Lord Hunt took a number of different positions including as an adviser for lawyers Beachcroft Wansbroughs (with a major interest in health) and for KPMG.

Sir Andrew Foster

Former Chief Executive at the Audit Commission for England and Wales (1992-2003) and before that Deputy Chief Executive in the NHS, Foster is now a non executive director with Nestor Health Care and Pruhealth, National Express and Liberata IT Outsourcing (all of them involved, or interested, in privatisation in one form or another). The audit commission is responsible for monitoring the performance of all health and local authorities.