Focusing on inpatient care does not reflect the broad range of services delivered by the private sector during the first year of the pandemic, a spokesperson said.ĭavid Hare, chief executive of IHPN, told The BMJ that he was “comfortable” with the sector’s contribution in that period. IHPN added that private work was only carried out when facilities were not required by the NHS, as was permitted in the contract. The Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), which represents the private hospitals, said that the contract with NHS England paid for independent hospitals’ capacity, staff, and equipment rather than specific levels of activity and that the hospitals were always available to treat NHS patients. Private providers: funding and episodes of inpatient care Together Nuffield, Circle, Ramsay, and Spire’s 143 private hospitals delivered just 51% of their total episodes of inpatient care to NHS patients in the first year of the pandemic (fig 1). Meanwhile, 44% of episodes of inpatient care at Circle’s 47 private hospitals were private patients at Ramsay’s 31 hospitals nearly 27% of episodes were private. Spire devoted 62% of its episodes of inpatient care across 36 of its private hospitals to private patients despite taxpayers paying their expenses, according to data from the Private Healthcare Information Network. Nuffield devoted 64% of its episodes of inpatient care across its 29 contracted hospitals to private patients rather than NHS patients in the first year of the pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021), 4 despite NHS England paying the hospitals’ expenses. Experts are now questioning why NHS England bought up hospital capacity rather than paying for activity that was delivered. And two of the biggest hospital groups on the contract treated more private inpatients than NHS patients, despite NHS England agreeing to pay for nearly all their operating costs. 3 But NHS England data collected in the first year of the pandemic show that some private hospitals were also underused when it came to tackling NHS waiting lists.
In May 2020, the private sector was advised to shift its focus to tackling elective care that had been put on hold by NHS trusts swamped by patients with covid-19. The investigation found that just 30 of the 200 private hospitals were used to treat patients with covid-19 in April 2020. 1Ī BMJ investigation has found that, despite a generous contract with the NHS estimated to be worth around £2bn, the private sector was massively underused in many areas of the UK during the pandemic. The “major deal” bought the entire capacity of 200 private hospitals, including 8000 private beds, 1200 ventilators, 700 doctors, and 10 000 nurses, to help the NHS care for patients with covid-19, with cancer, or needing urgent operations. Within weeks, New Foscote Hospital became one of 27 private hospital businesses to join a new national contract between the private sector and NHS England, announced to the public on 21 March 2020. Determined not to let “a facility with trained nurses and beds and equipment” be underused during lockdown, Balmain, interim chief operating officer, knocked on the doors of NHS England, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, and local MPs in the hope of keeping New Foscote’s doors open. The 12 bed hospital was 11 months into a successful turnaround plan when the pandemic hit. “It hadn’t been financially viable for many years.” “It hadn’t had a great reputation,” says Natalie Balmain, describing Foscote Hospital, a small private hospital in Oxfordshire, which was acquired by new owners in 2019 and rebranded as New Foscote Hospital. Although they carried out millions of outpatient and diagnostic activities, some admitted few inpatients or used most of their beds to treat private patients.
Private hospitals were paid around £2bn to help the NHS during the first year of the pandemic.
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