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08
Dec 2020
Millions paid to private hospitals for unused beds as NHS waiting lists soar
It has emerged that millions of pounds have been paid by the taxpayer to private hospitals under contracts with the NHS, despite two-thirds of extra capacity beds going unused for months during the summer.
According to leaked documents, a majority of beds in private hospitals during the four months from June to September were not used by the NHS.
This news comes despite soaring numbers of patients waiting for operations, with around 140,000 waiting for more than 12 months for treatment by September and over 1.7 million waiting for longer than the 18 week target for routine NHS treatment.
The deal assisted the private hospital sector within the UK to survive the early months of the pandemic and lockdown, as private patient numbers dropped, which may otherwise have devastated the industry’s profits.
The sector agreed to provide the beds ‘at cost’ to the NHS, meaning the hospitals were paid an agreed amount of cash based on what could be delivered instead of what was actually used, resulting in much of the funding being paid for unused services.
The Centre of Health and Public Interest think tank’s director David Rowland, said “These figures reveal that the NHS has used almost £1bn of scarce taxpayer resources to prop up the private hospital industry and has received very little in return.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Freephone : 0800 304 7382
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