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Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
NHS hospitals deal with private firms to buy and sell patient care and treatment services worth more than ?500m, creating a marketplace for commercial healthcare companies in the English health service, an analysis by the Guardian reveals.
Freedom of information requests to more than 100 NHS trusts revealed hospitals were spending millions of pounds buying beds in private hospitals, often to bring down long waiting lists. A review of these trusts' finances identified at least ?300m generated in hospital income from patients who pay. Many trusts admit they seek to profit from private patients and use the money to fund public healthcare.
With demand for healthcare rising and budgets constrained, many of the best-known names in the NHS are spending taxpayers' cash to buy beds from private companies. St George's NHS trust in south London last year spent ?3.25m at nearby private hospitals Parkside ? ultimately owned by US private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe ? and Bupa-approved St Anthony's.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/18/nhs-trusts-enmeshed-private-provision
Freedom of information requests to more than 100 NHS trusts revealed hospitals were spending millions of pounds buying beds in private hospitals, often to bring down long waiting lists. A review of these trusts' finances identified at least ?300m generated in hospital income from patients who pay. Many trusts admit they seek to profit from private patients and use the money to fund public healthcare.
With demand for healthcare rising and budgets constrained, many of the best-known names in the NHS are spending taxpayers' cash to buy beds from private companies. St George's NHS trust in south London last year spent ?3.25m at nearby private hospitals Parkside ? ultimately owned by US private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe ? and Bupa-approved St Anthony's.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/18/nhs-trusts-enmeshed-private-provision