Record NHS waiting lists drive demand at Spire Healthcare9 Sep 2022 08:33
From The Times this morning:
Record NHS waiting lists are driving patients towards private healthcare, creating “fundamental” changes in the healthcare system and delivering bumper profits for companies.
Spire Healthcare, one of Britain’s biggest private healthcare providers, today said revenue from private patients had risen by more than a fifth in the first half of this year, against the same period in 2021, and was up by almost a third compared to before the pandemic.
The results coincided with figures from NHS England showing the number of people waiting for care has reached another new high of 6.8 million.
There were 377,689 people who had been waiting for more than a year at the end of July, up by almost 22,000 on the month before.
Justin Ash, chief executive of Spire, said the NHS delays were “not good news for anybody” but it has contributed to a “fundamental shift in consumer thinking”.
Research from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, which represents private healthcare companies, including Spire, has found that 50 per cent of respondents were thinking of going private.
Demand for private healthcare has been increasing since before the pandemic.
Ash, 57, said private patients were from a “much broader socio-economic group than it used to be”.
“The preponderance have family incomes over £50,000, but there’s been quite an increase in those with family incomes of £40,000 and younger people.”
The core market remains people aged over 55, as those needing care tend to be older, but there has been a strong increase in younger people, those under 35, accessing private care and those in lower socio-economic groups.
He said it showed there is a “real shift” and not just for hospital care, such as for hip replacements, but for outpatient care, such as diagnoses, blood tests and MRI scans, as well as for GP access.
The number of people accessing Spire’s private GP service grew by 69 per cent compared to the first half of last year and is up by 169 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Overall revenue at Spire, including those self-paying, private medical insurance customers and NHS referrals, rose by 7.1 per cent to £597.9 million and adjusted operating profits by 12.6 per cent to £54.6 million.
The company recently signed a new four-year agreement with Bupa to provide services to its UK health insurance customers for the next four years.
Spire, which has been advertising on television, said that although its customers were “not immune” to higher inflation, its research showed “the typical private patient is able to access the funds for private care and healthcare is a key spending priority”.
A majority of its private patients remain insured via company schemes, a sector which has also returned to growth.
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