Privatisation fears as NHS to use more independent clinics to help cut backlog

The private sector is being used to tackle the NHS backlog across the country - ITV News' Kelly Foran has more

More private clinics will be used to help cut the NHS backlog, ministers have announced, sparking fears about the health service's future funding model.

Questions have long been raised about whether the NHS is fit for purpose, given waiting lists are at a record length and there is an annual winter crisis.

The government has said 13 new community diagnostic centres (CDCs) will be opened across England to carry out an additional 742,000 scans, checks and tests per year, in a bid to reduce the intense pressure on NHS hospitals.

Eight of the new facilities will be operated by the private sector – although services will be free to patients – and five will be run by the NHS.

Despite assurances from Health Minister Maria Caulfield that clinics will be "on the principles of the NHS, free at the point of use" and will not "feel any different to patients", many people are worried by the news.

Social media users claimed this was another step towards full privatisation of the health service, with many also venting their frustration at Labour for backing the plans and urging the government to go further.

"The last thing the NHS in England needs is more private sector involvement," said Green Party MSP Gillian Mackay. "Far too much of it has already been sold-off and privatised by successive Labour and Tory governments."

But Ms Caulfield told ITV News that throughout the history of the health service, "there's always been an independent provider element to the NHS and so we're just taking this further to the benefit of patients".

Figures released last month revealed NHS waiting lists stood at 7.47 million at the end of May, the highest number since records began in 2007.

Labour said the government is currently not making enough use of private capacity, claiming 331,000 patients waiting for NHS care could have been treated since January 2022.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, said: “The Conservatives are failing to make use of private sector capacity and patients are paying the price.

“No-one should be waiting in pain while hospital beds that could be used lie empty. The next Labour government will use spare capacity in the private sector to get patients seen faster.”

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “We must use every available resource to deliver life-saving checks to ease pressure on the NHS.

“By making use of the available capacity in the independent sector, and enabling patients to access this diagnostic capacity free at the point of need, we can offer patients a wider choice of venues to receive treatment and in doing so diagnose major illnesses quicker and start treatments sooner.”

Private centres will operate similarly to their NHS counterparts, the government said, but staff will be employed by private operators, which also own the buildings.

Sites in the South West – located in Redruth, Bristol, Torbay, Yeovil and Weston Super Mare – will be operated by diagnostics company InHealth.

Other private facilities will also be located in Southend, Northampton and south Birmingham and join four already operating in Brighton, north Solihull, Oxford and Salford.

The new NHS-run sites are in Hornchurch, Skegness, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent.

The government pledged to open 160 CDCs by 2030. There are currently 114 operating, which have carried out 4.6 million tests, checks and scans since July 2021.

A number of other measures to use capacity in the private sector have been outlined by the Elective Recovery Taskforce, which was set up in December.

These include using data from private health providers to identify where they could take on more NHS patients to help clear backlogs. They will also look at using the private sector to train junior NHS staff.

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Health Minister and Elective Recovery Taskforce chair Will Quince added: “We have already made significant progress in bringing down waiting lists, with 18 month waits virtually eliminated.

“I chaired the Elective Recovery Taskforce to turbocharge these efforts and help patients get the treatment they need.

“These actions will bolster capacity across the country and give patients more choice over where and when they are treated.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to bring waiting lists down earlier this year, but last month he said industrial action across the NHS is making the task “more challenging”.

Junior doctors are currently preparing for another four-day strike on August 11 in their ongoing row with the government over pay, with consultants set to walk out for 48 hours on August 24.