Privatisation of healthcare and public health responses to COVID-19

Responding to this article 'How a decade of privatisation and cuts exposed England to coronavirus' from The Guardian:

The privatisation of NHS England (whether the government and politicians want to admit it or not), this is exactly what I do not want to see the direction Malaysia MOH is heading in future.

Our MOH has performed well for the battle against COVID-19 thus far, we have our public health practitioners, allied workforce and health management bureacrats (all are 'civil servants') to thank for. Most of all, our MOH still have direct control of the public healthcare services, can coordinate quickly, deploy personnels and resources, expand the capacity, and carry out the decision as quickly as possible. Time is the most precious thing during the fight against the deadly virus, government has to act decisively and proportionately at the right time. Fortunately we have a more cohesive, less fragmented health system with proper governance.

Imagine if our government still have to negotiate with many private sector players and reach an agreement on the pricing, labour and administrative matters? A certain association even defended a private hospital (its member) for jacking up the price outrageously to a poor patient for the face masks used by their own staffs, imagine our government has to settle with them...

See how NHS England is crippled by many functions being outsourced/privatised (while their own departments being downsized), until themselves do not have the ability to rapidly respond, scale up and mobilise their own resources especially during health emergency like COVID-19... note how much budget cuts the local health authority have received over the years, that is deadly to their public health service delivery.