Private hospitals massively underused in lots of areas of the UK through the pandemic

Private hospitals had been paid round £2bn to assist the NHS through the first yr of the covid pandemic. But an investigation by The BMJ has discovered that simply 30 of the 200 personal hospitals had been used to deal with sufferers with covid-19 in April 2020 when the primary pandemic wave hit its peak.

While there isn’t a suggestion the hospitals breached their contracts by treating so few sufferers with covid-19, investigations reporter Esther Oxford exhibits that the personal sector was massively underused in lots of areas of the UK through the pandemic.

In mild of the findings, experts are actually questioning why NHS England purchased up hospital capability reasonably than paying for exercise that was delivered.

In a “main deal” introduced on 21 March 2020, NHS England purchased the complete capability of 200 personal hospitals, together with 8000 personal beds, 1200 ventilators, 700 docs and 10,000 nurses, to assist the NHS look after sufferers with covid-19, with most cancers, or needing pressing operations.

Yet, between 30 March 2020 and 30 April 2020, solely 0.62% of the personal sector’s contracted beds had been used to deal with sufferers with covid-19.

By 12 April 2020, when the variety of sufferers with covid-19 in England’s hospitals had hit its peak, NHS hospitals in England had been treating 18,921 inpatients with covid-19, 2881 of them on mechanical air flow. On the identical day, solely 52 had been being handled in personal sector hospitals beneath the nationwide contract, The BMJ has discovered.

The Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), which represents personal hospitals, mentioned that personal hospitals “didn’t neglect to deal with covid sufferers”: that treating sufferers with covid-19 was by no means the precedence within the contract and was a final resort if the NHS was overwhelmed.

In May 2020, the personal sector was suggested to shift its focus to tackling non-urgent (elective) care that had been placed on maintain by NHS trusts swamped by sufferers with covid-19.

Yet knowledge present that, collectively, Nuffield, Circle, Ramsay and Spire’s 143 personal hospitals delivered simply 51% of their complete episodes of inpatient care to NHS sufferers within the first yr of the pandemic.

For occasion, Nuffield devoted 64% of its episodes of inpatient care throughout its 29 contracted hospitals to personal sufferers reasonably than NHS sufferers within the first yr of the pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021), regardless of NHS England paying the hospitals’ bills, whereas Spire devoted 62% of its episodes of inpatient care throughout 36 of its personal hospitals to personal sufferers.

Meanwhile, 44% of episodes of inpatient care at Circle’s 47 personal hospitals had been personal sufferers; at Ramsay’s 31 hospitals almost 27% of episodes of inpatient care had been personal.

IHPN said that the contract with NHS England paid for impartial hospitals’ capability, workers and tools reasonably than particular ranges of exercise and that the hospitals had been at all times obtainable to deal with NHS sufferers. IHPN mentioned that personal work was solely carried out when amenities weren’t required by the NHS, as was permitted within the contract. Focusing on inpatient care doesn’t replicate the broad vary of companies delivered by the personal sector through the first yr of the pandemic, a spokesperson added.

But in November 2022 NHS England lastly launched a breakdown of the information exhibiting how a lot NHS work the personal sector truly did through the first yr of the pandemic. It  means that whereas the sector carried out tens of millions of diagnostic and outpatient actions, a few of London’s most prestigious impartial hospitals handled few NHS sufferers, regardless of disaster degree NHS ready lists.

BUPA’s Cromwell Hospital in London, for instance, supplied simply 1588 NHS inpatient, outpatient and day case actions, and 1173 diagnostic actions guessween 29 March and 13 September 2020, regardless of having 137 beds. And but it managed to hold out 7550 episodes of care for personal inpatients between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, based on knowledge from the Private Healthcare Information Network. The authorities’s contract with BUPA Cromwell Hospital was price £27.5m.

When it got here to most cancers, solely seven of the 27 personal hospital companies signed as much as the nationwide contract handled NHS sufferers with chemotherapy or radiotherapy between 22 March 2020 and the week ending the 4 April 2021, together with Circle and Spire, which accomplished 16,253 and 24,075 actions, respectively.

IHPN mentioned that further most cancers care was carried out by NHS groups in personal hospitals, and this isn’t captured on this knowledge.

An NHS England spokesperson mentioned that The BMJ’s evaluation “doesn’t replicate the pliability of the preparations, together with exercise that NHS suppliers had been in a position to ship themselves based mostly in impartial amenities, or seize that workers and tools had been additionally obtainable for the NHS to make use of in their very own amenities.”

Nevertheless, Allyson Pollock, scientific professor of public well being at Newcastle University, says that the National Audit Office or Public Accounts Committee ought to conduct an in depth and pressing inquiry into the personal sector contracts. “The lack of transparency and accountability for public funding within the nationwide contract is kind of stunning,” she mentioned.

However, the prime minister Rishi Sunak and shadow secretary of state for well being and social care Wes Streeting are holding discussions with the personal sector about the way it may proceed to assist scale back NHS ready instances as a part of a restoration plan to deal with waiting lists.