Long waiting lists fuel rise in private treatment

LONG NHS waiting lists are causing patients to “opt out” of NHS treatment and pay for healthcare from their own pockets, experts have said.

New figures show that patients paid for 69,045 private treatments themselves between October and December 2021, up 39% on the equivalent period in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. There was a 25% rise in the South West.

The data from the Private Healthcare Information Network (Phin) also shows there were 258,445 selfpay admissions at private providers in 2021, up 29% from the 199,675 in 2019.

Health experts said the record NHS backlog could be fuelling the demand for private care and warned that this could “exacerbate inequalities” between people who can afford to pay and those who cannot.

The number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment climbed to a new record high of 6.6 million at the end of May.

Phin said that certain common procedures such as hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery were the primary drivers of the growth in the self-pay market. Hip replacements were up 141% from 2,085 between October and December 2019 to 5,015 during the same period last year, knee replacements rose 111% from 1,240 to 2,620, and cataract surgery was up 56% from 8,145 to 12,700.

Jonathon Holmes, policy adviser at think tank The King’s Fund, said if the NHS was providing the access to services people wanted they would not be paying for their own care. He added: “I think, overall, support for the model of an universal healthcare system funded via tax still is what the public largely supports and wants.

“So, if the NHS were providing the access and immediacy of services that people want and need, I am quite sure that people would select the free-at-the-point-of-use NHS rather than spend their own resources. People are opting out of the NHS, not opting into the private sector.”

Louise Ansari, national director at Healthwatch England, said that, due to the cost-of-living crisis, the gap between those who could pay for private care and those who could not was likely to grow.

She added: “We know that some people who would previously have gone down an NHS pathway have already had treatment privately during the pandemic, and almost one in seven of those on waiting lists say they can afford to go private and are considering it.

“Yet, for more than two-thirds of people going private simply isn’t an option and, with the rising cost-ofliving crisis, the gap between these groups is only likely to grow.

“Our evidence also shows that people on the lowest incomes are the most likely to wait the longest for NHS treatment and will have a more negative experience of waiting.

“In turn, this leads to a worse impact on their physical health, mental health and their ability to work and care for loved ones.”

An NHS spokesman said: ““There is no doubt the NHS still faces pressures – including an increase in Covid patients in hospitals and demand for emergency care – but we are committed to carrying out as much elective treatment as possible for patients.”