RE: TLY19 Sep 2022 23:54
surprised,
You rely heavily on investor magazines to make totally stupid comments.
Private healthcare is damaging the staffing crisis in the NHS.
The great majority of clinical staff that work in private healthcare have been trained by the NHS, largely at the expense of the taxpayer. Private health providers do not carry the direct or indirect costs of this training. NHS hospitals have the responsibility to provide comprehensive 24/7 services, not only in A&E, but in most other medical and surgical specialties, whereas private healthcare providers can steer clear of such commitments. The way in which VAT is applied to many drugs, devices and equipment is less favourable to NHS hospitals than to private providers.
These factors allow private health providers to undercut NHS providers when bidding for contracts to treat NHS patients.
In many specialties the income, from a steady flow of predictable elective and outpatient work, heavily subsidizes the cost of providing round-the-clock emergency care. If elective care is contracted out to private providers, there is a strong possibility that your local hospital will be unable to continue to provide the level of urgent care that patients previously enjoyed. It also has an impact on training.
Surgeons in training require exposure to the learning that comes from operating, under appropriate supervision, on patients in the controlled setting of “routine” operating sessions: if this work moves to the private sector, it can take much longer to build up the expertise and confidence of the next generation of surgeons.
Many of our parliamentarians, in every major party, have financial links to the private healthcare industry; the revolving doors between the civil service and commerce are spinning rapidly; and many senior doctors are also able to spot commercial opportunities.
Unfortunately, this approach seriously undermines the NHS.
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