Summary
Panorama investigates a private hospital chain being used to help clear the NHS waiting list.
With more than six million people in England alone waiting for an operation on the NHS, Monika Plaha investigates the safety record of one of the UK's biggest private healthcare providers.
Content
This episode of Panorama looks at patient safety concerns related to patients receiving NHS treatment in private hospitals, focusing on services provided by Spire Healthcare. It highlighted several different cases, including:
- The death of Sabrina Khan following a failure to transfer her to intensive care quickly enough when she became critically ill.
- Concerns relating to the surgeon Mike Walsh who worked at the Spire Leeds Hospital from 1993 until he was suspended in 2018.
- The deaths of Christina Ruse, Barbara Hollis and Geoffrey Hoad, each of which raised similar concerns about delayed transfers from a Spire Norwich Hospital to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to the two reports below. These three patients covered by these reports all died within a nine-month period.
The programme highlights the following concerns:
- Differences in rules around maximum working hours of Resident Medical Officers in NHS hospitals as opposed to private hospitals providing NHS care and treatment.
- Concerns raised anonymously by staff at Spire Healthcare in regards to patient safety.
- Safety issues that can arise when a private hospital performing surgery does not have the intensive care facilities required if a patient significantly deteriorates, requiring a transfer of care in which further safety risks arise.
- Whether the NHS has a clear understanding of the capacities of private hospitals when using them to deliver NHS care and treatment. Nick Woodier from the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) was quoted on these issues in the programme, with HSSIB having previously published a report looking at patient safety in relation to the care of patients who have NHS-funded surgery in an independent hospital in 2021.
NHS patients going private: What are the risks? (BBC Panorama, 8 April 2024)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001y43c/panorama-nhs-patients-going-private-what-are-the-risks
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