NHS trusts with record waiting lists are promoting ‘quick and easy’ private healthcare services in their own hospitals, offering patients the chance to skip years of queues observer can reveal.

ukdaily.news 

Hospitals offer hip replacements from £10,000, cataract surgery from £2,200 and hernia repairs from £2,500. MRI scans are offered for between £300 and £400.

This comes as figures show a record 7.21million people waiting for NHS treatment in England, routinely exceeding the maximum waiting time of 18 weeks for non-urgent referrals. Health experts warn of the danger of creating a “two-tier” healthcare system. On observer Investigation has revealed:

• The East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has thousands of patients awaiting diagnostic tests but is offering “quick access” to scans through its private department.
• Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust in Wiltshire is warning patients that services are “extremely busy” while its private department is promoting self-pay treatment for those who “don’t want to wait for an NHS referral”.
• James Paget University Hospitals NHS Trust in Norfolk advertises private services on its NHS website, stating: “We provide highly experienced, consultant-led services… with no waiting list.”

The premium treatments are provided through private patient units owned and operated by NHS trusts, usually located on hospital premises. Procedures are often carried out by the same staff who would ultimately treat patients if they remained on the NHS waiting list. Under a code of practice, private services cannot impact NHS patient care and profits go back to the health service.

Sussex Premier Health, part of the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, is doing MRI scans in 48 hours for £379, according to a recent Instagram promotion. The Trust has more than 7,800 patients awaiting diagnostic testing.

Sussex Premier Health MRI scan promotion. Photo: Instagram/sussexpremierhealth

Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust in Wiltshire provides private health care through a 20 bed unit, the Shalfourne suite. The private patient website states: “We believe that quality healthcare should be easily accessible.”

A woman whose elderly mother was treated by the Trust in October claims she was told she could avoid long waiting lists if she paid. “My 86-year-old mother has to wait two years for the NHS or can see the same surgeon in the same hospital and be treated for £1,200 in two weeks. How is that right?” she wrote on Twitter.

A North East teacher, who asked not to be named, said she borrowed £350 for an MRI scan. “At the appointment there were posters on the walls saying the times for results to be returned: three days for private, three weeks for the NHS.” The scan revealed she had a swollen cyst on her knee, which is treating had to become.

The private Candover Clinic, part of the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Photo: Instagram/Candoverclinic

Another trust, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust, sponsors services through its private Candover clinic. More than 53,500 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective treatment at the foundation in October.

Meanwhile, Kingston Private Health, the private unit of Kingston Hospital’s NHS Trust in south-west London, is offering “rapid access” without “long waiting lists”. Treatments include hip replacements costing £10,100. Patients will be cared for by “skilled NHS nurses”, the website says.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust writes on its private department’s website of a “quick and easy way to get immediate access to the healthcare you need”.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS hospital trusts were allowed to derive up to 49% of their income from private patients. By 2015/16 almost £600m a year was being generated by the NHS treating private patients.

The pandemic and record waiting lists prompted a review of private services by some trusts. The NHS Trust at King’s College Hospital in south London has suspended inpatient and outpatient private services during the pandemic to allow inpatient beds to be used for NHS patients. The stationary service has not yet reopened.

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, which has some of the longest waiting times in England, says its private patient facilities are “currently being used for NHS services”.

David Rowland, director of the Center for Health and Public Interest, said while it was “potentially defensible” for trusts to offer private services when the NHS was not under pressure, it was “very ethically dubious” during a crisis.

Advocates of private patient units say they can help boost revenue for trusts, but some experts say the benefits are unclear, arguing that if private departments lose money they could drain NHS resources.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “NHS care always comes first. Any revenue generated from our operations will be fully reinvested in the NHS.”

The Great Western Hospital NHS Trust said it has not operated a full private patient unit since Covid and where it offers private treatment “it is out of hours and where there is capacity in empty ambulances”, with NHS patients always “priority care”.

Kingston Hospital NHS Trust said it scaled back private activities over the winter and used the space to ease pressure on the NHS. “Of our 417 adult beds, we currently only have 2 patients in private beds,” a spokesman said.

The Royal Free said it has cut waiting lists over the past two years. “All profits from our private patient unit are reinvested into the trust. It is entirely separate from our NHS capacity and has no impact on the care provided to NHS patients.”

The Department for Health and Social Care said: “NHS hospitals have always been able to generate small extra revenue by treating private patients, which can then be used to improve services for NHS patients.”

Which comes first: the “garden village” of 2,000 or the relief road; and will the “garden village” development stop at 2,000? 

Sounds familiar? – Owl

Ollie Heptinstall www.devonlive.com

Plans for a new Cullompton relief road are progressing despite full funding not yet being secured. Mid Devon District Council is still awaiting the outcome of a fresh bid to the government’s levelling-up fund, which will provide most of the road’s revised new £28 million cost.

However, to prevent further delays, the authority’s ruling cabinet agreed on Tuesday to use a further £210,000 of £10 million cash already secured from Homes England to carry out further technical work. The planned road to the east of the town will improve capacity at junction 28 of the M5.

The aims it also to help reduce traffic through the town centre and unlock the development of 2,000 homes nearby, including an initial 500 properties as part of what is being called Culm Garden Village. It will also provide improved pedestrian and cycle access to the planned new Cullompton railway station, which could be in use by 2025.

Mid Devon approved a new bid to the government levelling-up fund’s second round last June, after an initial bid was rejected in December 2021. Originally set to cost £15 million, the road has now ballooned to a projected £28 million; blamed on increased construction costs, replacing sporting facilities and the potential amount needed to buy land.

Planning permission has already been granted for both the road and a new home for Cullompton Cricket Club, which will need to relocate. Devon County Council supports the project and has pledged £1.5 million, while the area’s Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord has also given his backing.

Cabinet member for planning and economic regeneration, Councillor Richard Chesterton (Conservative, Lower Culm), told this week’s meeting: “It is the first of more than just this infrastructure that will be needed to deliver ultimately the Culm Garden Village.

“That’s part of what has made the levelling-up bid, we think, quite a good bid that hopefully government will accept, because it does bring forward so much else for the town and allow things that the government are obviously wanting to deliver in terms of the garden village.”

He added: “Hopefully the levelling-up [bid] will be granted but obviously, in the meantime, we have to deliver the relief road to be able to progress long-term on the other items that are on the agenda for Cullompton.”

Highlighting the project’s importance, Councillor Margaret Squires (Conservative, Sandford and Creedy) referred to a comment made by a Cullompton resident, stating: “The existing Cullompton could be dying if the relief road’s not delivered, so I welcome any progress.”

Councillors were previously told how the terms of the funding already provided by Homes England requires the road to be built by March. A council director acknowledged this agreement would need to be reviewed, probably when the outcome of the levelling-up bid is known.

Cabinet members agreed to use a further £210,000 of funding already in place to carry out further technical work, subject to an “agreement on appropriate indemnity” to protect the council from paying back the money if the levelling-up bid fails. It expects to hear whether the bid has been successful by the end of January.

They could pay double next year

Mid Devon plans to double council tax for second homeowners when new powers come into force.

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

The government included the surcharge for second homes in its levelling up and regeneration bill last year, but they are not expected to be introduced until next year at the earliest.

On Tuesday [3 January] Mid Devon District Council’s cabinet agreed to adopt the policy, subject to further approval by full council, becoming the latest of Devon’s local authorities to provisionally sign up.

Before Christmas, South Hams Council also agreed to double council tax for people who own second homes, once it has the power to do so. Cornwall Council has agreed likewise.

According to a report, the 100 per cent premium could bring more than £400,000 in extra council tax revenue per year.

It is hoped the change will also free up more properties and ease the current housing crisis in Devon,  with claims that key workers are struggling to move to the area due to the lack of suitable housing.

At this week’s meeting, deputy council leader Clive Egington (Conservative, Taw Vale) said: “I’m sure a number of members are content that the provision for second homeowners will be increased to 200 per cent with effect from 1 April 2024.

“I know this is something that cabinet for a number of years has discussed and wish to have implemented and I’m glad to see that the wherewithal has now given us, effectively, the opportunity to do this.”

When the levelling-up bill was first unveiled last year, including allowing English councils to be able to double tax on unoccupied second homes, housing secretary Michael Gove told Times Radio that he didn’t think second homes were “immoral.”

But he added: “I think it’s important to recognise that when you have people in places like Devon who are local folk who can’t get onto the housing ladder, because the price of property has been bid up by second homeowners, sometimes you need to take appropriate steps in order to make sure that communities can flourish.”

Mid Devon’s cabinet also provisionally agreed to adopt another new power in the levelling-up bill, allowing councils to double council tax faster on properties that have been empty of furniture and residents for 12 months – a reduction from the current two years.

A full meeting of the council will be asked to rubber-stamp the decisions in the coming weeks.