As many as 2.5 million extra NHS patients a year could be treated in private clinics under a new deal to help clear the waiting list backlog.
Sir Keir Starmer said he was “not ideological” about allowing more private providers to carry out NHS operations and procedures to cope with demand because tackling the 7.5 million waiting list was “urgent”.
The new deal between NHS England and the private sector was unveiled as part of an elective care plan designed to meet the target of 92 per cent of patients being seen within 18 weeks, which Labour has pledged to reach by the next election.
The private sector currently carries out 1 million treatments for NHS patients a year, and says it has capacity to do a further 1 million.
On top of this, the Government wants more patients in deprived areas to have the choice of having their operation in a private clinic, which would be an extra 1.5 million a year, bringing the total up to 3.5 million.
The figure is not a target but Whitehall sources told The i Paper the Government wanted the private sector to deliver this number of treatments.
As private providers are mainly based in London and the south east, areas in northern England, including the most disadvantaged communities, currently experience the longest waits for elective treatment.
Figures from NHS England show people living in disadvantaged areas are 1.8 times more likely to wait over a year than someone living in more affluent neighbourhoods.
There is a postcode lottery for accessing care. For example, around 65.1 per cent of existing waits are within 18 weeks in the North East and Yorkshire region, whereas this figure is 55.1 per cent in the East of England.
NHS patients who undergo operations in private clinics do not have to pay but the NHS is charged for the cost of the procedure.
A standard hip operation costs the NHS around £7,000 whether it is carried out on the NHS or by a private provider treating an NHS patient.
The NHS and Independent Sector Partnership Agreement will help expand capacity and widen patient choice by setting out how more treatments can be delivered through the independent sector, with care remaining free at the point of use, the Department of Health said.
Speaking to NHS staff and reporters at a hospital in Surrey on Monday, the Prime Minister stressed that the private sector was already used across the NHS, with trusts paying companies for beds or treatments on a regular basis and said that he wanted to broaden this capacity to bring down waiting lists.
He said: “An element of private sector support in the NHS has been there for a very, very long time, and clearly we need to make best use of it.
“The agreement we’ve signed today is to make sure we can do it better so it is not just a sort of cherry picking of cases, it is a more comprehensive use.”
The PM acknowledged that some would not approve of relying on privatised healthcare to prop up the national system but argued he was “not interested in putting ideology before patients”.
“I know some people won’t like this, but I make no apologies. Change is urgent,” he said.
Under the deal with the private sector, patients will be given a broader choice of where their treatment is carried out – which already happens in some areas but not across every trust.
The NHS will target specialist areas of treatment which experience the longest waiting times, including women on gynaecological waiting lists, where there is a backlog of 260,000 patients waiting more than 18 weeks, and record numbers of orthopaedics patients, where more than 40 per cent of patients are waiting longer than the 18-week target.
Currently, fewer than a quarter of patients recall being offered a choice of hospital for their treatment.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Millions of patients are being forced to wait unacceptably long for treatment, failed by 14 years of neglect of the NHS. This government will pull every lever available to get patients treated on time again.
“I’m not going to allow working people to wait longer than is necessary, when we can get them treated sooner in a private hospital, paid for by the NHS. If the wealthy can be treated on time, then so should NHS patients.”
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “The independent sector is playing a vital role in supporting hospitals to get on top of the backlog, delivering more than 100,000 elective appointment and procedures every week for the NHS – up by more than half since 2021.
“But we are under no illusions that we must go further and faster if we want to get the waiting list down to levels last seen in 2015.
“This new agreement will enable the NHS to make better use of capacity within the private sector where it is needed most, and help us see more patients, free at the point of use.”
David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), said: “Independent providers already treat millions of NHS patients every year, and this agreement builds on these strong foundations by making full use of existing capacity in the sector, ensuring that patients are offered proper choice of provider as well as supporting the sector to invest in, and deliver, an even wider choice of high quality services to NHS patients to bring waiting times down – all delivered free at the point of use and paid for at NHS prices.”
