Patients’ private care to be funded by NHS

Reforms allow a ‘right to choose’ another hospital for those on waiting lists for more than 18 months

PEOPLE stuck on NHS waiting lists for more than 18 months will be offered treatment in a private hospital under a “right to choose”, the Health Secretary will say today.

Sajid Javid will make the pledge as part of NHS reforms that will also result in a near doubling in the number of people offered “personalised” healthcare, including the right to control the budgets spent on them.

Such schemes, which also include “social prescribing” – with GPS able to refer patients for activities ranging from ballroom dancing to gardening – were first piloted more than a decade ago. Under the plans, they will be expanded to cover four million people by 2024.

Anyone waiting more than 18 months for hospital treatment will be contacted by the end of this year and offered treatment at an alternative provider.

This could mean travelling to an NHS hospital elsewhere in the country or being referred to a private hospital for treatment funded by the NHS.

Mr Javid will say that an ageing population, changing technology and expectations meant the NHS was always going to face a crossroads, with a choice between reform or “endlessly putting in more and more money”. In a speech to the Royal College of Physicians in London, he will vow: “I choose reform.”

He will add that “the shock of Covid and the urgent need for recovery” means the need has never been more pressing. Mr Javid will say that giving patients a choice about the care they receive is key to improving care and reforming the NHS.

Advocates say that personalised budgets can allow those with chronic conditions to choose the most suitable type of help. Budgets can be used to pay for a wide range of services, including therapies to help with depression, personal care such as assistance with dressing and washing, and equipment.

However, critics have expressed concern that the system is open to abuse, with concern about the use of funds when the NHS is under pressure. Last year, an investigation revealed that the schemes had allowed NHS cash to be spent on football season tickets, Playstation consoles and theme park passes.

Under the plans, regular users of healthcare are allowed to decide how best funds on them are spent, as long as their decisions are backed by health officials.

Officials said the schemes can help to maintain independence, reducing pressure on high-cost NHS services such as inpatient hospital care.

The plans will also see a major expansion in “social prescribing” by GPS.

Pilot programmes found that schemes in which pensioners were encouraged to take up activities such as dancing, gardening and fishing improved mobility and cut trips to accident and emergency units by more than a quarter.

Mr Javid is expected to say: “We know that when healthcare is personalised – built around the person and their family – it works better. It’s not just more efficient, it’s more effective too: with more diseases prevented and better medical interventions.”

Last night, Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said the plans would “help to ensure patients and their families are firmly in the driving seat when it comes to making decisions about their care”.

Efforts to tackle a record backlog of 6.1million people on waiting lists will involve those with the longest waits contacted and offered treatment at an alternative provider.

Those who choose to travel for quicker care should have transport costs reimbursed, where feasible, health officials said.

More than 300,000 people are facing waits of more than a year, compared with 1,600 before the pandemic.

A system of “patient choice” was introduced under the Blair government, with patients allowed to choose from hundreds of NHS hospitals and private units. But the policy has withered, with GPS doing little to publicise it.