The government plans for private hospitals to provide NHS patients in England with as many as a million extra appointments, scans and operations a year in a drive to cut … Read more
private providers
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
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
A survey of 200 eye doctors by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI), shared with the Guardian, reports that the vast majority believe increased outsourcing of cataract … 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
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
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
The NHS was set up to be a universal health service, covering the whole population, providing care according to clinical need, not ability to pay, and funded from general taxation. … Read more
The digital health company Babylon Health is set to withdraw from the New York Stock Exchange and become a private company again as its leading creditor AlbaCore Capital LLP, takes … Read more
Sky News has reported on a report in The Times that patients will soon be able to use the NHS app to opt for private hospital treatment in an effort … Read more
Two weeks ago, the Lowdown took a detailed look at the situation of the private healthcare sector. We were seeking to understand why – after 13 years of policies promoting privatisation and … Read more
The wife of a Neil O’Brien, a Conservative health minister, works for a private firm that has been handed NHS contracts, it has been revealed. Neil O’Brien’s spouse is GP engagement lead … Read more
OpenDemocracy reports that the private hospital sector saw 6.6% fewer people in 2022 than 2019, despite lucrative contracts to fix wait lists. The government handed almost half a billion pounds … Read more
According to a recent report in the (£paywalled) Times, Rishi Sunak’s so-called “elective recovery task force,” steered no doubt by its private sector participants, is planning new legislation this summer … Read more
NHS figures analysed by The Independent have found that a single children’s mental health hospital with just 59 beds reported more than 1,600 “sexual safety incidents” in four years. The … Read more
With no long-term NHS workforce strategy on the horizon, the government’s default policy on slashing elective waiting lists – pushing more NHS patients towards private hospitals dependent on NHS-trained staff … Read more
