London NHS hospitals bought £36m of services from US healthcare firm HCA last year – The Guardian
London NHS hospitals struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic bought £36m of cancer care, cardiology and other services directly from the UK’s largest private healthcare group, HCA, last year.
Analysis of monthly public data from NHS trusts, published by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI), reveals the extent to which London hospitals have become reliant on private providers, prompting concerns about creeping backdoor privat…….
London NHS hospitals struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic bought £36m of cancer care, cardiology and other services directly from the UK’s largest private healthcare group, HCA, last year.
Analysis of monthly public data from NHS trusts, published by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI), reveals the extent to which London hospitals have become reliant on private providers, prompting concerns about creeping backdoor privatisation of the health service.
“Covid has been very much used as a cover for shrinking NHS care and expanding private healthcare provision,” said Allyson Pollock, a clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University and an honorary professor at University College London. She said the money would be better used to invest in NHS staffing, equipment and expansion.
This level of spending by individual NHS trusts was unprecedented for cancer care and cardiology, said CHPI.
The spending is over and above the £2bn so far handed over from central NHS budgets to private hospitals during the pandemic. In recent years NHS hospitals have bought extra capacity from private providers for simple procedures such as hip and knee operations, but they have not previously spent large sums outsourcing more complex treatments.
HCA said its support had allowed 14,000 complex cardiac and cancer NHS patients to receive the care they needed. Many of them were casualties of the widespread suspension of normal care during the pandemic, as resources were diverted away from many specialisms, including cancer, to treat Covid-19 patients.
By outsourcing some of the most pressing cases on their backlog to HCA, trusts ensured that those most in need were cared for.
Prior to the pandemic, HCA carried out virtually no work for the NHS. Founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1968, and listed on the New York stock exchange, HCA is the largest healthcare company in the world and has more than 30 hospitals and clinics in London and Manchester, with another one due to open in Birmingham this year.
CHPI’s research shows the company was the biggest private beneficiary of funds spent on cancer care and cardiology direct from NHS hospital trusts in London between December 2020 and December 2021.
The biggest spender was Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust, which bought more than £20m of services from HCA. Barts was the second largest spender, with £10m. University College London hospital (UCLH), Imperial College, Chelsea and Westminster, and the Royal Free also paid for HCA services.
“The extent to which the private sector is now being used to deliver NHS …….
