Doctors’ strike leader who opposes NHS privatisation works for 7 private firms
A CONSULTANT behind the senior doctor strikes claims to oppose NHS privatisation – but works with seven health insurance firms and charges £2,000 for a routine test.
Mike Henley, a lead negotiator for the British Medical Association, was last night accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ after the extent of his private work was revealed.
The doctor and union activist has said he opposes ‘privatisation of the NHS’. He has also promoted conspiracy theories about a ‘Tufton Street mafia’ – referring to the Westminster location of several centre-Right policy think-tanks trying to push what he calls ‘wholesale’ privatisation of the health service.
But Mr Henley works with at least seven health insurance firms at a private hospital. Some patients are charged more than £2,000 for a cystoscopy test, a procedure to look inside the bladder using a camera. He also demands more than £200 for an initial consultation.
Mr Henley, who owns a £1million cottage in rural Derbyshire, is among thousands of NHS consultants in England who will strike on Thursday and Friday this week.
On Sunday the BMA announced two more walkouts of consultants
– on August 24 and 25 – and threatened to stage more industrial action following an ‘insulting’ 6 per cent pay rise. This is despite consultants enjoying average earnings of £128,000 and £60,000-plus annual pensions – and amid warnings that their strikes will have a big impact on waiting lists.
The BMA insists the walkouts will not stop until their demands for a 35 per cent pay rise are met. Ministers say this is unaffordable.
Mr Henley will be among senior medics who are able to profit from the walkouts because they are allowed to cash in on private work while on strike. Tory MP Paul Bristow, who sits on the Commons health committee, said: ‘It’s a bit rich and staggeringly hypocritical for consultants like Mike Henley to be complaining about how underpaid they are while doing lucrative work with seven health insurance firms.
‘People like Mike Henley should be around the negotiating table and doing everything they can to get doctors back to work. I’ve got no problem with NHS consultants doing some private practice, but they then shouldn’t be moralising about NHS privatisation.’
A senior Tory source added: ‘This is complete hypocrisy from one of the key individuals behind the BMA Consultants Committee’s threats to strike.’
Mr Henley uses Twitter to give a running commentary on the health service.
In May 2016 he posted: ‘Consultants reject the privatisation of the NHS.’
In September 2021, he posted: ‘By relieving some of the pressure on the NHS it’s much harder for the Tufton Street mafia and their pet politicians to attempt wholesale privatisation/insurance models in the NHS.’ Yet he is listed as working with seven private medical insurance providers on the Nuffield Health website – Aviva Health, AXA PPP Healthcare, Benenden Health, Bupa, Bupa On Demand, Simplyhealth and WPA.
He is listed as among those charging more than £2,000 for a cystoscopy at Derby Hospital, which confirmed this was the rate without including a consultation, which is a further £225.
Alongside his private work, Mr Henley is listed as a urology consultant for the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust. He is deputy chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee.
The BMA said Mr Henley will not get all of the fee advertised for his private work and that he could receive as little as 10 per cent.
A spokesman said: ‘Consultants are committed to providing patients with the best care possible.’ The union said Mr Henley did not wish to comment further.
‘Staggeringly hypocritical’
ALZHEIMER’S is one of the most heartbreaking and least understood of all major illnesses. Some 900,000 suffer from it in the UK, yet scientists have known little about what causes it and treatments tend to ease symptoms rather than stopping the disease.
However, all that may be about to change. A new drug – donanemab – has been shown to hold back symptoms by up to 60 per cent and is being hailed as the ‘turning point’ in tackling this most cruel of conditions.
It’s the second cutting-edge treatment developed this year, offering hope that it may one day be possible to manage Alzheimer’s in a similar way to diabetes or asthma.
But early diagnosis remains key to successful outcomes and in that regard this country is performing lamentably. We need to rapidly increase access to positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, which can detect the amyloid plaques associated with early Alzheimer’s.
The NHS has just 88 of these high-tech machines, among the lowest per capita in the world. It’s simply not enough.
The scientists have played their part brilliantly. It’s time for policy makers to follow their example.
AFTER learning that striking doctors will be doing private and locum work rather than spending their days on the picket line, we now discover that a lead negotiator for the British Medical Association opposes privatisation of the NHS while working with at least seven private health insurance companies. The stink of hypocrisy around this dispute grows more pungent by the day.