An exultant article from the grinning director of the Independent Healthcare Provider Network (IHPN) David Furness in the October issue of Healthcare Markets magazine reminds readers that the dire situation of the NHS has opened lucrative doors for the “independent” sector.
With a best case scenario of NHS waiting lists doubling from the “already record high of 4 million,” Furness argues, NHS England has set up a framework contract to buy in around £10bn of additional capacity from non-NHS providers over the next four years:
“Such a substantial contract with the independent sector would ordinarily have stimulated much debate on the merits of NHS/private partnerships,” Furness continues breathlessly, “but in this current climate it almost passed under the radar with even the most ardent critics of the sector struggling to convincingly make the case that the NHS should not be sourcing all available resources in order to improve patient access to care.”
This of course raises a number of questions: exactly what resources does the private hospital sector really have to offer, at what financial and organisational cost?
Full story in The Lowdown, 8 November 2020
