Private providers to deliver more care to NHS patients under government plan
A major expansion of the private sector’s role in providing elective NHS care in England risks diverting finite staff and resources from elsewhere in the service, experts have warned. As part of a package of new measures designed to lower waiting times for planned NHS treatment in England,1 the government wants the private sector to deliver an additional one million appointments a year for NHS patients.2 The expansion, which is based on the private sector’s projections of what it can deliver, would increase the total number of NHS appointments, tests, and operations delivered by independent providers from around five million to six million each year. The waiting list for planned NHS care in England currently stands at 6.4 million people waiting for 7.5 …
