Wessex local medical committee has issued a warning letter to three integrated care boards where it represents GPs: Dorset; Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; and Bath and North East … Read more
Private Providers
Our work and news stories on private providers.
EMED, a private patient transport company taking over contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, is reported to be grappling with concerns about service performance and risk to patients. EMED … Read more
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust have outraged trade unions and campaigners by outsourcing parts of their finance department in the desperate effort to cut spending. The Trust faces a £104m deficit … Read more
It’s another autumn, and the private healthcare sector is again attempting to convince journalists and the public that it is booming. The publicists for the private hospitals are keen to take the stigma … Read more
Few campaigners or union activists appear to have noticed or commented upon Labour’s Manifesto commitment to roll back privatisation in public services. Some of Labour’s manifesto promises go further than … Read more
The business press and private sector spin doctors are doing their best to talk up the growth of the private hospital sector despite increasing signs that the prices of private … Read more
David Rowland on the presence of private equity in the UK health and care market If you are in a vulnerable situation in the UK because of your age, personal … Read more
Privatisation of healthcare results in a reduction in quality of care according to a review paper published this week (1 March 2024) in The Lancet. The study’s authors from the University … Read more
An investigation by HSJ has found that up to 20 per cent of NHS elective patients are now being treated by private hospitals in some areas. There has been an … Read more
Hundreds of thousands of cancer patients in the UK are being forced to pay for private treatment amid record NHS waiting times, according to data obtained by the Guardian. The proportion of … Read more
The latest Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts (2022-23) have updated the published figures on NHS spending on private sector and non-NHS providers. They show that the private … Read more
Lowdown readers will have seen the widespread outrage about the latest revelations around Horizon and the Post Office, but many who have campaigned against privatisation and outsourcing won’t be too … Read more
The latest figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) make worrying reading for private hospital bosses, with no sign of the long-expected boost in numbers of patients dipping in to savings … Read more
The giant American health corporation Centene has now completed a divestment of all its health care investments in England by selling off its subsidiary Operose, which had controversially acquired 60 GP … Read more
More evidence is emerging on the failure of the private hospital sector to make the expected gains from the chronic crisis of the NHS and its lengthening waiting lists. Far … Read more
HSJ reports that experts have warned that the drive to cut NHS waiting lists is becoming ‘disproportionately reliant’ on the private sector, as new data suggests rapid growth in the … Read more
In the face of rising waiting lists government policy has aimed to increase the role of the independent sector in tackling these record delays, but as a Lowdown analysis of … Read more
The latest (September) figures from the private sector’s own official source, the Private Healthcare Information Network, confirm yet again how limited has been the growth in private hospitals’ inpatient caseload – despite … Read more
A continuing barrage of misinformation on the supposed boom in private medical treatment as a result of the soaring NHS waiting lists has continued into the summer ‘silly season’ for … Read more
Centene, a major US health insurer, has just agreed to sell off its largest British acquisition, Circle Healthcare, which owned the UK’s biggest chain of private hospitals. The US corporation’s … Read more
