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Found 207 results
  1. News Article
    One in eight adults in the UK have paid for private medical care in the last year because of long delays in getting NHS treatment, renewing fears that the NHS is becoming “a two-tier system”. “Around one in eight (13%) adults reported they had paid for private medical care, with 5% using private insurance and 7% paying for the treatment themselves,” according to a new report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Patients also say that waiting for tests or treatment is badly affecting them, including making their illness worse. The ONS survey of 2,510 adults across the UK found that one in five were waiting for an appointment, test or treatment at an NHS hospital. Of those in that situation: Three-quarters said their delay had had either a strongly (34%) or slightly (42%) negative impact on their life 36% said waiting had made their condition worse 59% said it had damaged their wellbeing A third said long waits had affected either their mobility (33%) or ability to exercise (34%) Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 December 2022
  2. News Article
    Increasing numbers of emotionally troubled children have been taken into care while waiting long periods for NHS treatment because their condition deteriorated to the point where their parents could no longer cope with their behaviour, child protection bosses have revealed. Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) president Steve Crocker said that since the pandemic, youngsters with complex emotional needs had become a significant factor in rising child protection referrals. “We are seeing children in the social care system because they have not been supported in the [NHS] mental health system,” he said. Crocker urged ministers to “do better” for children facing “unacceptable” delays in NHS mental health treatment, adding that it was not uncommon for waiting lists to involve waits of over a year. Councils were “filling gaps” in NHS provision but struggling to find placements for children with severe behavioural problems, and when they did, typically paid “untenable” fees of tens of thousands of pounds a week. He accused private children’s residential care providers and their “rapacious” hedge fund backers of “profiteering” from the care crisis, and urged the government to intervene to cap typical profit margins that were currently about 20%. “We do not see how this can be allowed to continue,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 December 2022
  3. News Article
    Peers are launching an inquiry into private health companies paid millions of pounds to courier NHS medicines in England, after the Guardian exposed how sick children and adults were being harmed by botched, delayed or missed deliveries. The House of Lords public services committee will examine “the extent of the problems in homecare medicine services”, and the impact on patients, clinicians and the wider health service. More than 500,000 patients and their families rely on private companies contracted by the NHS to deliver essential medical supplies and care to their homes. A Guardian investigation revealed how Sciensus, Britain’s biggest provider of homecare medicines services, has struggled to provide a safe or reliable service. Seriously ill children as young as four have been let down, with some becoming sicker because of failings by the company. Patients and medics have complained to Sciensus and to regulators, but little has changed. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2023
  4. News Article
    The number of people paying privately for operations and treatments in the UK has risen by more than a third since the pandemic started, the latest figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) show. Last year 272,000 used their own money to pay for treatments, such as knee or eye surgery - up from 199,000 in 2019. The NHS backlog has been blamed for the trend, with some of the treatments costing more than £15,000. But there does appear to have been a shift away from private insurance driven by the cost of living crisis. The numbers treated through that route were just below 550,000 - more than 30,000 fewer than three years ago. Health providers are reporting patients desperate for treatment because of NHS waits are increasingly turning to the private market. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 May 2023
  5. News Article
    The government in England should increase its use of the private sector to tackle the NHS backlog, Labour says. It said as many as 300,000 patients have missed out on treatment since it called for greater use of private clinics in January 2022. And the party said it was unjust that the lack of action meant only those who could afford to pay for treatment themselves were being seen on time. The government said it was delivering by cutting long waits. However, data published by NHS England last week showed key targets to tackle the backlogs in cancer care and routine treatment had been missed. Overall, there are now a record 7.3 million people on a hospital waiting list, which is nearly three million higher than it was before the pandemic started. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 May 2023
  6. News Article
    Patients are being offered powerful drugs and told they have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after unreliable online assessments, a BBC investigation has discovered. Three private clinics diagnosed an undercover reporter via video calls. But a more detailed, in-person NHS assessment showed he didn't have the condition. Panorama spoke to dozens of patients and whistleblowers after receiving tip-offs about rushed and poor-quality assessments at some private clinics, including Harley Psychiatrists, ADHD Direct and ADHD 360. The investigation found that: Clinics carried out only limited mental health assessments of patients. Powerful drugs were prescribed for long-term use, without advice on possible serious side effects or proper consideration of patients' medical history. Patients posting negative reviews were threatened with legal action. The NHS is paying for thousands of patients to go to private clinics for assessments. Commenting on Panorama's findings, Dr Mike Smith - an NHS consultant psychiatrist - said he was seriously concerned about the number of people who might "potentially have received an incorrect diagnosis and been started on medications inappropriately". "The scale is massive." Read full story Source: BBC News,
  7. News Article
    The boss of a private healthcare company exposed by the Guardian for putting seriously ill children and adults at risk was warned it was failing patients three years ago. Darryn Gibson, the chief executive of Sciensus, Britain’s biggest medicines courier, was told in November 2020 that patients with bleeding disorders were being left dangerously exposed to internal bleeding with little or no treatment at home as a result of botched, delayed or missed deliveries. Gibson received the written warning from Kate Burt, the chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, a leading health charity, after she had become outraged at how vulnerable patients were being let down. Sciensus blamed IT issues and promised action. However, three years later, patients remain at “very serious” risk of harm because of “recurring” problems with the company, Burt said. “We continue to receive complaints about missing, incomplete or inaccurate deliveries and are very concerned to see the same issues recurring, indicating that far more needs to be done to improve Sciensus’s ordering and delivery systems,” she said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 May 2023
  8. News Article
    The watchdog responsible for investigating unresolved healthcare complaints has been warned repeatedly for nine months about problems with Sciensus, a private company paid millions to deliver vital medicines to NHS patients, the Guardian can reveal. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has received 18 official requests to examine grievances against Sciensus since August last year, but has not begun any investigations, according to a person familiar with the matter. The revelation comes after a Guardian investigation exposed serious and significant concerns raised by patients, clinicians and health groups about Sciensus. The investigation revealed that the company has struggled to provide a safe or reliable service. Patients persistently complain about delayed or missed home deliveries of medication, the Guardian found, with clinicians warning that the health of some has deteriorated as a result. The investigation also uncovered how some NHS staff experience “daily issues” with Sciensus. Others reported an increase in patients “flaring” as a result of missed or delayed medication. Some have seen a rise in hospital admissions. In the wake of the investigation, the Care Quality Commission, the care regulator, said it was “aware of concerns raised” about Sciensus, and was reviewing them. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 May 2023
  9. News Article
    Two former senior managers at a large mental healthcare provider have told the BBC they had concerns about the safety of patients and staff. The whistleblowers claim they felt pressure to cut costs and fill beds. The Priory Group, which receives more than £600m of public money each year, is the biggest single private provider of mental health services to the NHS. The company denies the claims and says it successfully treats tens of thousands of patients each year. It adds its services "remain amongst the safest in the UK". The former members of the Priory Group's senior management said that, when they were working for the company, they found it difficult to recruit or retain staff, due to poor pay and conditions. They believe this resulted in patients being placed on wards that did not have staff equipped with the right skills to handle their conditions. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 April 2023
  10. News Article
    The independent sector should be commissioned to provide more NHS outpatient appointments, rather than just be focused on cutting cataract waiting lists, the president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists has said. A “workforce census” survey carried out by the college and shared with HSJ found almost 60% of respondents believed independent providers were having a “negative impact” on care and ophthalmology services in their area. Speaking about its findings to HSJ, RCOphth president Bernie Chang said Covid had exacerbated problems caused by use of independent sector providers. These problems included cases being passed back to the NHS when IS care failed, and the NHS being left with a greater concentration of more serious, and costly, cases as the IS focussed on routine cataract operations. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 April 2023
  11. News Article
    An acute trust and its integrated care system have said they risk missing the imminent waiting list target, after struggling to get as many patients treated in the independent sector as they hoped. University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS have found that some patients who had earlier been referred to independent providers, had then, while waiting for IS treatment, got sicker or became high risk to such an extent that they needed to be referred back to UHNM. Other patients have declined being transferred to the independent sector, board meetings heard. Phil Smith, chief delivery officer at Staffordshire and Stoke-On-Trent Integrated Care Board, told its meeting last week he needed to “flag an escalated risk” to meeting the target, after deterioration in activity “linked to industrial action, linked to the willingness of patients to be treated in the independent sector and the independent sector’s ability to treat patients”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 March 2023
  12. Content Article
    Dr Freya Smith, a Specialty Trainee in General Practice, reflects on the sinister and toxic side of medicine, using the recent Paterson and vaginal mesh scandals to demonstrate how patients have been let down by the system. In an honest and personal account, she shares with us the horror and sadness she felt at learning of these scandals and how she aspires to keep her future patients safe.
  13. Content Article
    This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Ian talks to us about rebuilding patient trust in the healthcare system, how the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) is helping to improve decision making for patients in the private sector, and why recognising the link between physical and mental health is vital to patient safety.
  14. Content Article
    Elizabeth Holmes, the 38 year old founder of failed diagnostic start-up Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison this November. The sentence was handed down nearly a year after she was found guilty of defrauding investors about her finger prick blood testing devices, and seven years after the Wall Street Journal published its first investigation exposing the company’s struggles. Theranos’ customers received false laboratory test results indicating life threatening conditions such as cancer and HIV. Patients were left to wait anxiously while traditional laboratories repeated the tests, and at least one customer stopped taking his medication on the basis of erroneous results. Holmes was ultimately not convicted of charges relating to patient harm, instead she will be locked up for misleading wealthy investors.
  15. Content Article
    This blog by a UK-based dentist, who blogs under the name Fang Farrier, highlights the dangers of popular media presenting rumour about dentistry services as fact. She refers to an incident where a presenter on the TV show Good Morning Britain said that NHS doctors were no longer trained to be able to perform tooth extractions, describing it as a "categorical fact [presented] by a private dentist." The blog highlights four related issues concerning public perception of dentists, dentistry training and the impact of fear of complaints and litigation on NHS dentistry services: We need to be more mindful about how we talk about dentistry, particularly other dentists Our new graduates seem to be graduating with less experience and less confidence in most procedures, most notably extractions and root canal Fear of failure and taking risks The NHS question… will it stay or will it go?
  16. News Article
    Private companies are offering “misleading” home blood-testing kits that fuel health anxieties and pile pressure on the NHS, a report has suggested. There has been a boom in sales of the kits, which promise to reveal everything from cancer risk to how long patients can expect to live. But an investigation by the BMJ found these “unnecessary and potentially invasive tests” can be misleading and generate false alarms. The NHS is then left to “clear up the mess” as worried patients see GPs for reassurance or extra tests, piling more pressure on the overstretched service. One GP described patients coming in “clutching the results of private screening tests”, with doctors asked to review the results. The companies have been criticised for not providing sufficient follow-ups after the “poor quality and overhyped” tests, and for misleading results such as wrongly telling people their test levels are outside the “normal” range. Bernie Croal, president of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, said: “Most of the online [tests] will send the results to the patient with at best a sort of asterisk next to the ones that are abnormal, with advice to either pay some more money to get some sort of health professional to speak about it or go and see your own GP.” Doctors are calling for the tests to be more tightly regulated by the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 27 October 2022
  17. News Article
    Spire Healthcare, a private healthcare company, has confirmed it will recall patients amid concerns about a surgeon's operations. It comes after Walsall Healthcare Trust announced it was recalling 600 NHS patients who underwent shoulder surgery performed by Mr Shah. Spire said it was committed to promptly responding to concerns and undertaking good governance. Mr Shah is the third shoulder surgeon since 2019 operating from Spire premises to have had issues. One private patient, Martin Byrne, said he was in immediate pain after an operation to repair his rotator cuff performed by Mr Shah at Spire, Little Aston, in Sutton Coldfield in August 2018. He had a further two operations, one on the NHS by Mr Shah and another at Spire, but has since been told nothing more can be done surgically. "This has broken me as a man," he said. "I can't do the things that I used to do with my children. I can't help out lifting at work. "I have sat on the bed crying at night from the pain and I feel that Spire have offered me a lot of tea and sympathy, but they have just fobbed me off. "In my opinion, he has ruined me." Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 October 2022
  18. News Article
    Doctors recruited from some of the world's poorest countries to work in UK hospitals say they're being exploited - and believe they're so overworked they fear putting patients' health at risk. A BBC investigation has found evidence that doctors from Nigeria are being recruited by a British healthcare company and expected to work in private hospitals under conditions not allowed in the National Health Service. The British Medical Association (BMA) has described the situation as "shocking" and says the sector needs to be brought in line with NHS working practices. Dr Jenny Vaughan of the Doctors Association UK said, "This is a slave-type work with… excess hours, the like of which we thought had been gone 30 years ago. It is not acceptable for patients for patient-safety reasons. It is not acceptable for doctors. " Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 October 2022
  19. News Article
    Several patients awaiting treatment on the Welsh NHS have turned to surgery abroad as waiting lists hit record levels again. Waiting lists hit a record of almost 750,000 in July prompting surgeons to demand "urgent action". The Welsh government said waits of more than two years were improving. Health Minister Eluned Morgan said there were "signs of hope" that a target for no-one to wait more than a year for their first outpatient appointment could be hit by the end of 2022. But the Conservatives accused Labour ministers of having "little strategy" to tackle "extraordinary waits", while Plaid Cymru called for action "to increase capacity and improve patient flow". Sharon Seymour, 62, from Monmouthshire, went to Lithuania after being told she faced a "two years plus" wait for a hip replacement. The council worker said she also found out about Lithuania from other patients in Wales and had her surgery in July. She said the fact that people were taking matters into their own hands suggested the health system in Wales was not working. "[The NHS] does need a huge cash injection... a rethink completely now," she said. "The sadder point is the people who have the ability to pay will get it. "The inequality between those who can't and that [can is] a sad state of affairs," she added. "It's only through luck that we've managed to find the funds to go to Lithuania. "For most people, it isn't an option and that's horrible." Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 September 2022
  20. News Article
    A private hospital has been rated ‘inadequate’ by a health watchdog following an inspection prompted by a young patient’s preventable death. Woodbourne Priory Hospital, in Edgbaston, has had its overall Care Quality Commission rating downgraded from “good” to “inadequate” after inspectors visited in May. The regulator’s visit was sparked by a prevention of future deaths report into the death of Birmingham University graduate Matthew Caseby, 23, who was placed at the hospital as an NHS-funded patient in September 2020. Mr Caseby had been detained under the Mental Health Act but managed to escape Woodbourne and died after being struck by a train. Earlier this year, an inquest concluded his death was contributed to by neglect on behalf of the hospital. In April, Birmingham and Solihull coroner Louise Hunt flagged urgent concerns about record keeping, risk assessments and security of courtyard fences with Priory Group and the Department of Health and Social Care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 September 2022
  21. Content Article
    If you are considering 'going private' for the first time, it can be confusing and overwhelming. Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) has created some short videos to guide you through your private healthcare journey and demonstrate how the PHIN website and search function can help you. These videos for patients clarify some essential healthcare terms and shows how you can use PHIN's website to make informed decisions when considering private medical treatment.  Have a watch, or if you prefer to read the information instead, PHIN has also included the text from each video below it. PHIN is an independent, government-mandated organisation publishing performance and fees information about private consultants and hospitals.
  22. Content Article
    In the US, patients receiving cancer treatment via Medicare or Medicaid—two federal health insurance programmes—can face barriers to accessing treatment when insurers use the Prior Authorization Process to deny access. In this letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) outlines its concerns that prior authorizations are acting as "roadblocks to Americans with cancer getting the optimal treatment on a timely basis." Referring to proposed rule changes that aim to reduce the burden that prior authorization processes place on providers, the COA calls for the inclusion of medications to ensure that American's with cancer are not denied the treatment they need.
  23. Content Article
    In this opinion piece for US website Stat, Michael Millenson explores how financial factors have contributed to the lack of progress in reducing avoidable harm in the US over the past decade. He argues that the private, insurance-based system means that hospitals make more money from patients with complications, therefore patient safety improvements reduce healthcare organisations' profits. He highlights that research demonstrating this link is only now uncovering what hospital executives have known for years—that current payment structures may “reduce the willingness of hospitals to invest in patient safety.”
  24. News Article
    Patients will be encouraged to choose private hospitals for NHS care under plans to help clear backlogs of routine operations through outsourcing more treatment. A task force of private healthcare bosses and NHS chiefs met in Downing Street for the first time yesterday in an effort to find more capacity for hip replacements, cataracts and other routine procedures in the independent sector. NHS bosses are hopeful of meeting a target to eliminate waits of more than 18 months by April, but there is increasing concern in government about whether one-year waits can be eliminated by 2025 as planned. Private hospitals say they have spare capacity that could help bring down waits but NHS bosses have been sceptical. Patients have long had a legal right to choose where they are treated but ministers are planning a fresh push for GPs to offer them the choice of having NHS treatment in private hospitals, in a revival of a Blair-era scheme. Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said he wanted to “turbocharge our current plans to bust the backlog and help patients get the treatment they need”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 8 December 2022
  25. News Article
    Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of running a two-tier NHS after it emerged that tens of thousands of patients are going private for crucial operations and healthcare. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, cited figures that showed more than 39,000 patients underwent private procedures in the past year. These included thousands of hip and knee surgeries, costing an average of £12,500 per patient. “Often these are people who are forced to borrow money, turn to family and friends, or even remortgage their home to get healthcare that should be free at the point of need,” Sarwar told MSPs at first minister’s questions. He said that almost 2,000 people had gone for private treatment for endoscopies and colonoscopies, more than 7,800 for cataract surgery and 3,500 have had a hip or knee replacement in a private hospital. “These figures make clear that under the SNP, healthcare in Scotland is already a two-tier system,” he added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 24 November 2022
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