NHS in crisis: Now bosses stage secret summit with private f irms
£850m bid to end waiting lists
THOUSANDS of NHS patients are to be treated by private firms in a bid to end Scotland’s waiting times crisis.
The NHS is set to pay for a range of procedures – from fitting children’s grommets and removing tonsils, to hip and knee replacements and gall bladder or hernia surgery.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that NHS Scotland has held secret talks with private firms to find out how many and what kind of patients they could treat.
The Scottish Government unveiled a plan last October to spend £850 million to abolish waiting lists. It contained a commitment to use private firms – despite vows by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her Government that the NHS should be free of private sector involvement.
Last night critics accused the Scottish Government of hypocrisy.
Scottish Labour health spokesman Monica Lennon said: ‘Big things were expected from Jeane Freeman when she was made Health Secretary – it’ll be disappointing if her plans to rescue the NHS are dependent on boosting the profits of private providers.’
The Government’s Waiting Times Improvement Plan included using NHS facilities more efficiently. However, the 22-page plan also said: ‘We will develop a National Contract, based on clinical priorities, to make a more efficient and strictly limited use of the independent sector’s contribution to short-term capacity while longer-term NHS capacity is put in place.’
On February 8, private firms met senior NHS procurement staff in Larkhall, Lanarkshire.
It is understood Medinet, Synaptik, The Aberdeen Clinic, Skin Cancer Care UK, 18 Week Support and DMC Healthcare were represented at a meeting chaired by Paul Hornby, NHS National Services Scotland’s head of strategic sourcing.
A source said: ‘It was all about who could do what and what people could deliver. There is a need for it, whatever the Government says.
‘They have this £850 million earmarked for waiting lists – how are they going to staff it without the private sector? The size of the problem is massive. Something’s got to give.’
The NHS is seeking help in dermatology, ENT [ear, nose and throat], ophthalmology, dermatology, general surgery, urology, neurology and orthopaedics. That could see private firms doing cataract operations, taking out tonsils, inserting grommets and removing polyps as well as assessing patients, taking blood tests and undertaking scans or biopsies. NHS Grampian announced last month that 1,400 dermatology and neurology patients would be seen by two firms.
In October, the Auditor General for Scotland warned that the NHS should be rescued with ‘immediate action’. The watchdog’s report said the health service was under increasing pressure from staff shortages and drug costs.
Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservatives health spokesman, said: ‘This highlights the SNP’s hypocrisy. Jeanne Freeman seems to be going to the private sector with her begging bowl to ask them to help address the SNP mess.’
Campaign group Doctors For The NHS wants a fully publicly-funded health service and its spokesman Alan Taman said the latest development raised concerns, adding: ‘Who is going to be controlling not just the waiting lists, but the entire service as time goes on? There’s a feeling that plugging the gap with private healthcare is a very short-term solution.’
DMC Healthcare said its radiologists could interpret 1,000 scan results a month in Scotland. Medinet, Skin Cancer Care UK and The Aberdeen Clinic declined to comment, while Synaptik and 18 Week Support did not respond. A spokesman for NHS National Services Scotland said: ‘The value of contracts are unknown until responses and capacity are matched up with requirements.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are committed to a publicly owned and operated NHS. This new single contract will provide additional capacity while we build up capacity in the NHS.’
‘Highlights the SNP hypocrisy’