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From hip replacements to cataract removal to ultrasound scans, private healthcare companies prepare detailed new plans to deliver billions of pounds worth of services to the NHS under a possible Labor government are doing. I can be revealed.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said his party would “keep the door wide open” to “entrepreneurs” in the private sector who think they can improve the NHS. Healthcare companies are responding enthusiastically by pledging to: To make hospitals available to more NHS patients, I Have learned.
They have also launched a series of treatments that helped cut 1.8 million cases from the huge NHS waiting list during the Labor government’s five-year term, by focusing on carrying out large numbers of simple surgeries quickly. It also aims to create a new dedicated “surgical hub”.
But experts have warned that the move could cause further problems for the NHS. The NHS will still have to pay for work carried out by the private sector out of its own fixed budget and will continue to have the most difficult cases.
Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the independent health think tank Nuffield Trust, said a further shift to the private sector could “entrench a permanent dependence” on it. Stated. “That’s a problem,” she said. “This is because the private sector typically cannot handle complex cases, which can account for about a third of cases.”
More than a million cases could be treated under a Labor government by using spare appointments, beds and operating theaters in the private sector, according to David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Provider Network. It is said that there is. He said healthcare provider members were encouraged by Labor’s recent “ideological shift” in favor of the private sector.
And an additional 800,000 cases could be treated in that time with 10 new “surgical hubs” that one giant, Practice Plus Group, has revealed are ready to open.
The changes could mean hundreds of millions of pounds in additional costs for healthcare companies. Annual private sector income from the NHS is predicted to soar to £3.9bn in 2025 after the election, healthcare business consultancy LaingBuisson has said. I.
The forecast represents a 9 per cent increase in one year and assumes a Labor government “shows that it is making inroads into the waiting list”, the Laing-Buisson report said. UK Private Acute Care Market ReportIs called. His private sector NHS income in 2022, the latest year for which actual figures are available, was £3.1bn.
Tim Reid, research director at Rheinbuisson, which advises investors on UK health care, said Mr Streeting’s support for the private sector was “the best outcome that could realistically be expected”. Stated.
“The NHS cannot do this alone.”
“There is full signal from Labor and perhaps the new government that the independent sector will play a key role in reducing waiting lists, and there is recognition that the NHS cannot achieve this alone,” he said. .
Labor has made clear it believes private sector spare capacity can be used to cut waiting lists and treat hundreds of thousands of additional patients. “No one should wait in agony while there are empty hospital beds available,” Streeting said.
He also said he wanted to “take a pretty tough stance on the UK NHS” to drive reforms that leverage new technology and encourage the NHS to be more open to private sector entry into health services. Ta.
“We want entrepreneurs who are coming up with cutting-edge treatments and technologies to know that when they come up with a great idea that can deliver better outcomes for patients and provide better value for taxpayers’ money, , it means you don’t have to struggle. Just walk through the front door of the NHS,” Mr Streeting said. I.
But Tim Gardner, deputy director of policy at research charity the Health Foundation, says Labour’s trust in private hospital providers may be misplaced.
1.8 million routine surgeries and treatments provided by private healthcare providers still have to be paid for by the NHS on a fixed budget. He said: “Local NHS commissioners will have to think about all other services, including emergency care, where demand has increased significantly.”
Same-day joint replacement surgery reduces waiting time
Jim Easton, chief executive of Practice Plus Group, one of the largest private providers of NHS services, said his industry could support the New Labor government “from day one”.
“We believe the industry will get serious about reducing waiting times if Labor wins government, and we believe we have the capacity to help,” he said.
“Within three months we were able to recruit enough staff to bring our costs down to the price that NHS hospitals pay for their surgeries. Within six months we were able to significantly increase our production capacity. Ta.
“With long-term commitment from the government and collaboration with other healthcare providers, we have the potential to introduce at least 10 new surgical units within a year and that will make a huge difference.”
These locations will resemble the “independent sector treatment centers” of the early 2000s, Easton said. Each of the 10 new surgical hubs will be able to treat 20,000 NHS patients a year and will be able to take a further 800,000 patients off NHS waiting lists in the four years after they open.
Mr Easton said: I These cases would be in addition to the 1 million proposed by Mr Hare. Practice Plus Group says NHS patients will also benefit from some of the latest surgical techniques, such as same-day joint replacement, which allows patients to go home immediately after major surgery.
While some NHS hospitals offer same-day joint surgery, Practice Plus Group is introducing same-day joint surgery across all its hospitals for NHS patients.
Charles Ikoloe, consultant orthopedic surgeon at the company’s Barbara Hospital in Derbyshire, said there were benefits to such a procedure. “Evidence shows that people are more mobile at home than in hospital wards with beds,” he says. “They know the local conditions well and it’s psychologically beneficial because they’re surrounded by loved ones and cared for.”
Spire Healthcare already has plans to open 10 new surgical hubs over the next few years, which could be at Labor’s disposal.
Labor says it wants to scrap private NHS provision in some areas, with plans to spend £171m a year. “Fit for the Future Fund” To purchase new equipment such as a scanner. The government last week sought to publicize the plan, which will be funded by the abolition of non-dom tax status, by highlighting that the NHS spent £1.1bn on private sector inspections between 2018 and 2023. During this time, the average price per scan tripled from £31 to £100, and total annual costs also tripled to £369 million.
However, a private sector provider said: I They believe demand for their scans is likely to continue. They believe that once new NHS scanners are introduced into hospitals, demand will be replaced by emergency cases, so there will still be a need for private “diagnostic centers” that can cope with long waiting lists for routine scans. Masu.
Explaining members’ plans, Mr Hare said: “They aim to expand and introduce new services with the confidence that whoever wins this year’s election will not seek to force the private sector out of the NHS frontline.”Service delivery.
“Health care providers are looking at what opportunities exist for hospital facilities and specialty centers such as eye clinics and diagnostic centers.”
They were prepared to quickly build a new surgical hub from scratch or by retrofitting an existing building. “The Surgical Hub is a great example of a service that the independent sector is currently delivering very efficiently and where the sector is perfectly placed to deliver even more services in the future,” Mr Hare said.
These hubs will focus on disrupting a number of surgeries, including cataracts, hip and knee replacements, and other relatively simple surgeries.
Concerns that private companies will compete with the NHS for staff
But the news is likely to alarm skeptics like Andy Burnham, the Labor mayor of Manchester, who said private sector involvement in public institutions “doesn’t deliver the right answers for the people”.
Mr Hare said a privately run surgical center would avoid many of the problems associated with NHS hospitals. “These facilities are highly productive and have theaters in place for emergency patients, so they are not under the same emergency care pressures as most NHS trusts where procedures can be cancelled.” he said.
Private healthcare providers are also considering building and operating diagnostic centers away from hospitals so that patients can receive X-ray, CT and ultrasound scans near their homes, he said. added.
Mr Gardner said another obstacle to Labour’s ambitions was that the NHS and private hospitals were “fishing in the same pool” for a limited supply of medical professionals. “If you try to go too far, too fast, you might not add value,” he said. “You end up just moving patients from one hospital to another without adding any value.”
Jim Easton, CEO of Practice Plus Group, agrees that there is no point in creating additional capacity in private hospitals if they do not attract new staff.
“Most of my doctors are employed full-time and I don’t want to cannibalize NHS staff to set up new centres,” he said.
He pointed out that the independent sector treatment centers introduced by the Blair government to reduce NHS waiting lists had to find their own staff.
“We needed to create significant capacity without compromising NHS staff,” Mr Easton said. “That was the challenge at the time, but the industry responded brilliantly and did just that.”
Labor has been contacted for comment.