NHS crisis fuels demand for private GPS, says hospital company

HUGE pressure on the NHS has triggered a surge in demand for private GPS as patients pay for the privilege of seeing a doctor face-to-face.

The hospital company Spire Healthcare said that revenues from its 125 private GPS jumped 46pc last year, and this momentum is continuing.

Justin Ash, chief executive, said: “If you look at what’s behind that, then clearly there is a well known problem of GPS being under pressure, the 8am scramble [for appointments] is a thing. People want to be able to book online and they want to be able to book at short notice.”

He said a growing number of people were paying to be able to have longer appointments with doctors and see them face-to-face, adding: “That is harder to get with GPS generally.”

Recent NHS figures suggest that around 61pc of GP appointments are currently held in person, down from 80pc before the pandemic.

Analysis by The Daily Telegraph earlier this year discovered that one in three GP practices in England are doing more appointments remotely than faceto-face. By last November, only 2pc of GP clinics were managing to see all their patients within two weeks.

Concerns have been growing over the wider implications of the pressures on the NHS, with MPS this week saying its performance on cancer was “going in the wrong direction”. The latest figures found that around 60pc of urgent referrals in the NHS for cancer began treatment within two months. This is the lowest level on record. Mr Ash said private hospitals and doctors were playing an important role in easing some of the strain on the NHS. He added: “By choosing to go private, someone is freeing up the slot with an NHS GP.”

Mr Ash said more people were using both private healthcare services and the NHS depending on how quickly they wanted to be seen and whether they wanted to guarantee an appointment would not be cancelled last minute.

NHS hospitals in England cancelled 88,000 appointments in the seven weeks to the end of January due to strikes by nurses and ambulance staff.

Mr Ash said: “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if more cancellations led people to go private more.”