Private healthcare profits hugely from NHS crisis

Last Updated: November 3, 2016By

medical stethoscope on background dollar denominations, close upHere’s an angle on the NHS crisis that we should have seen coming.

With waiting lists lengthening every day, those who can afford private healthcare – even if only just – are paying up, despite the expense, in order to get the treatment they need while it is worth their while to have it.

So those of us who thought the Conservative Party’s plan was simply to render the NHS unusable and then turn healthcare over to private, insurance-based medicine were mistaken.

It seems private healthcare has become twice as profitable as before, simply from the NHS being de-funded to a point at which people start considering the alternative.

Many MPs have financial interests in private healthcare, and the opportunity for profit this creates means they pose a serious risk to the UK’s national health; the majority can die – or have their health seriously compromised – on NHS waiting lists while they benefit from the minority who can afford to “go private”.

This is not what medicine is meant to be.

Private health companies are boosting their profits by up to 100 per cent as the health service struggles to cope.

An analysis of company reports and statements from all the major private hospital chains that make their figures available shows all have boosted their revenues this year. They say they are gaining from the plight of the NHS, with patients more likely to pay for their care to avoid lengthening NHS waiting lists, which have led to 3.7 million NHS patients waiting for treatment – the most since December 2007.

The investigation – the most comprehensive since the introduction of the Health and Social Care Act in 2012 – also shows that local commissioners are paying hundreds of millions to private hospitals and that hospitals have also boosted their income from private work.

Source: Private hospital profits boosted as NHS struggles | Political Concern

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No Comments

  1. Richard Eastell November 3, 2016 at 9:57 am - Reply

    And yet these private hospitals expect the NHS to pick up the tab when they make mistakes and botch the operations.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-spends-millions-picking-up-7776286

    • Mike Sivier November 3, 2016 at 11:03 am - Reply

      Excellent point – and one I should have made myself. That’s what I get for writing stories at two in the morning.

      • Michael Broadhurst November 3, 2016 at 1:27 pm - Reply

        surely there is someone on here who has the time and resources to find out which MPs have interests in private health companies(shares,directorships,etc),and to name them on here or other social media the more people saw their names in print and what they were up,they might start believing what a rotten,corrupt system we have.
        the same could be done with MPs who are private landlords.
        please someone who has got the time to do this,turn up and help to restore democracy to this country.

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