Here’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

Do you want Vox Political to cover a story? Use this form to tell us about it:

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here: