Private hospital groups have been paid £20m by the Scottish government to treat NHS patients since the start of the pandemic.

More than 4,000 surgical procedures, 6,000 outpatient appointments and nearly 4,000 diagnostic tests have taken place under the national initiative, which involves contracts with four independent hospitals.

The move is aimed at helping to reduce pressure on the NHS and provide a safe space for the most urgent operations to go ahead in an environment with less risk of catching covid-19.

Elective procedures were suspended across the health service in Scotland at the start of the pandemic.

Since March more than 100,000 fewer planned surgeries have taken place in NHS hospitals compared to the same period in 2019.

To keep treatment going, 4,300 patients have been sent for the most urgent operations in private hospitals, the Scottish government said, across a range of specialities but particularly for cancer surgery that cannot be postponed.

International research has shown providing a ‘covid-light’ environment for these to happen is crucial because outcomes following surgery on patients who have covid-19 are “substantially worse” than otherwise.

Speaking previously to healthandcare.scot, Professor Michael Griffin of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh said it was vital that lower risk alternative sites were used to catch up with a backlog of operations and diagnostic tests.

“Our College has been very strong on this, there has to be provision for a covid light or covid low risk environment where cancer surgery can be carried out safely,” he said.

“Equally we have called for diagnostic tests to continue in a covid-free environment.”

“We have suggested the independent sector, once again, or different, less hot and heavy parts of major hospitals which could be ring-fenced to do these diagnostic procedures, with adequate testing involved of patients and healthcare workers.”

healthandcare.scot first reported on the initiative to send patients private in April, though details on numbers of patients treated were only released this week.

The Scottish government introduced a strategy early in the pandemic to use private hospitals to mitigate some of the impact from NHS hospitals having to move onto an emergency footing.

However, the initiative is controversial given the SNP’s longstanding antipathy towards private healthcare.

Details of the payments were released following a freedom of information request.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Spokesman Donald Cameron urged the Scottish government to be “upfront” about the crucial role the private sector could play in helping patients facing long waits for surgery.

“That backlog is threatening to spiral out of control in our health service and SNP Ministers must get a grip on this,” he said.

“If private providers can help ease this burden, they should work wherever appropriate with the NHS to guarantee patients will receive treatment as urgently as possible.”

The hospitals being used are BMI Albyn in Aberdeen, BMI Kings Park in Stirling, Glasgow’s Nuffield hospital and the Murrayfield hospital in Edinburgh, which is run by Spire.

The £19.7m total is likely to be an underestimate of the spending so far, as figures released by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), which arranged the deals, only go up to September.

The information released by NSS under freedom of information show the single biggest recipient was the BMI healthcare group, which has received just under £8m.

Another £6m has gone to Nuffield Health, while Spire has received £5.6m.

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Monica Lennon called for more transparency over the deals.

She said: “Increasing NHS capacity must be a national priority, however, SNP Ministers must be open and transparent about the use of public money.

“We must guard against creeping privatisation in our national health service.”

The use of private companies was also criticised by Unison.

Tom Waterson, chair of the union’s Scottish health committee, said: “The alternative to this spend is to take these services, including buildings, into the NHS.

“If covid has shown anything it is that social care and private healthcare providers should be under the NHS thus allowing capacity to flow more freely.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “As the Cabinet Secretary announced on March 17^th our strategy for utilising the independent sector in Scotland has been to maximise available bed capacity, in order to support the NHS by providing a covid-free environment for urgent elective activity to be undertaken, particularly crucial cancer procedures.

“Between March and September 2020 more than 6300 outpatient appointments, around 4300 surgical procedures and more than 3700 diagnostic tests were carried in a number of specialities, based on patients’ clinical urgency.

“This work ensured that patients with the most urgent need were seen and treated, and supported NHS Scotland to respond to the pandemic while minimising the risk to critically unwell patients who required treatment that was non-covid-related.                                                   

“The virus will be with us for some time and it is right that we maximise capacity wherever possible to ensure those on urgent or cancer pathways can be treated in the safest possible environment.”

 

Sign up to our bulletin for key health & social care updates straight to your inbox.