Private hospitals paid millions for unused beds as NHS waiting lists soar

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. David Rowland, director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest think tank, told The Independent: “These figures reveal that the NHS has used almost £1bn of scarce taxpayer resources to prop up the private hospital industry and has received very little in return.” According to the HSJ, use of the private hospitals for day case patients was at just over 30 per cent in June and July, rising to more than 40 per cent in August before dropping to less than 30 per cent in September. In the summer, NHS England instructed NHS hospitals to restore services back to “near-normal” levels and to use private hospitals to deliver non-Covid operations. The Independent Healthcare Providers Network, which represents private providers, told the HSJ: “Where utilisation by the local NHS has been poor, independent sector providers have proactively raised that with those systems and where needed up through the regional and national NHS England teams.” It said private providers had achieved or exceeded the “vast majority of activity expectations” set by the NHS, while any profits that were made were returned under the terms of the contract. A spokesperson for NHS England added: “Independent hospitals’ NHS-funded elective activity has substantially increased during the autumn.” NHSE also indicated that in September the private sector was carrying out a large number of appointments.