Labour warns stricken NHS is forcing patients private

Mounting concern over lengthening waiting lists for treatment and surgery

Scottish Labour has warned of a two-tier health care system in Scotland as a growing number of patients are forced togoprivate.

Figures show the number of Scots opting to pay for treatment has surged by almost 50%. Data provided by the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) show 1,100 more people in Scotland had

paid out of their own pockets for treatment between April and June 2021, compared with the same period two years ago.

That means there were around 3,400 private patients over the three-month period. Scottish Labour’s health and Covid recovery spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “We cannot have a two-tier health system in Scotland, where only those with the financial means can be treated.

“This will only deepen health inequality in Scotland and threatens the position of our NHS.

The pandemic has undoubtedly affected services, but it is clear that SNP mismanagement is accelerating the rise of private medicine.

“A person’s health should not be determined by their income.

Humza Yousaf must act now to prevent inequality spiralling out of control.”

Meanwhile, official figures show NHS Scotland spent more than £20 million on using private hospitals for patients in six months. The money was spent on urgent elective procedures, primarily cancer, between March and September 2020.

NHS Lanarkshire was the biggestspending health board, handing over around £5m to Nuffield in Glasgow. Other private hospitals to benefit included BMI Albyn, BMI Kings Park and Spire Murrayfield.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson, Alex Cole-hamilton, pointed to figures which showed the NHS 12-week treatment time guarantee had been broken more than 400,000 times.

He said: “At the moment, so-called treatment time guarantees are not worth the paper they are written on. In many areas

waiting times are now so bad that Scots are having to choose between waiting for years or going private.

“Nobody should be left with no option but to pay an eye-watering sum if they want a potentially lifesaving test.”

It was revealed recently that private hospitals and other health care firms are being asked to provide prices for more than 1,500 procedures. Bidders will be expected to offer operations such as heart, cancer and brain surgery to support the NHS in Scotland.

This is despite pledges by the Scottish Government to phase out the use of private sector providers for planned care. The 2015-16 programme for government pledged to effectively eliminate use of the private sector for planned care as part of a 20-year strategy.

The Scottish Government said: “We are committed to keeping Scotland’s NHS publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need. As is the case across the four UK nations, hospitals in the independent sector have been contracted to provide additional capacity for NHS priority patients throughout the pandemic.”

It said figures show the number of patients going private across the UK is more than 50% higher than the rate in Scotland.