• A literature review conducted by researchers at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention in Oxford, UK, studied the effects of privatization on the quality of healthcare-related services.

• They analyzed 13 longitudinal studies in high-income countries that compared privatized to non-privatised points of care before and after the transition.

• The overall effect of privatization was negative.

• The studies showed worse performance in markers with worse performance in hospitals that outsourced healthcare services.

• These markers include:

1. Inpatient hospital infections

2. Staffing percentages 

3. Trust in healthcare staff

4. Mortality rates

• The authors mention that further analysis is required as the comparison groups were not randomized, data was taken from high-income countries only, and only a few factors of overall quality indicators were assessed.

• However, they state that scientific evidence for further privatization of healthcare services is weak. 

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