Concern over cost control exemptions for foreign health care firms

27 Jun 02
Foreign health care companies performing non-urgent surgery on NHS patients will be given a period of grace from health service cost controls.

28 June 2002

Health Secretary Alan Milburn this week published a prospectus setting out plans for overseas providers to reduce English waiting times as he met representatives of five European companies.

The first clinics are expected to be held later this year in the Southeast, probably in orthopaedic and ophthalmic surgery. At least initially, they will be exempt from the standard pricing due to be introduced in the NHS in 2003.

Milburn insisted this was to cover start-up costs, and that prices would fall in line with those in the NHS 'in the medium term'. The exemption period will depend on the service – the Department of Health has mentioned three years for cataract surgery, one of the least capital-intensive procedures.

But unions are sceptical that the initiative will prove cost-effective. British Medical Association chair Ian Bogle said he would seek an urgent meeting with Milburn. 'I would want to be reassured that this initiative does not detract from the long-term effort to build capacity in the NHS and to ensure that the NHS is getting the best possible value for money,' he said.

Unison national secretary Karen Jennings believed the NHS could solve its waiting list problem with better management of operating theatres. 'We should focus our attention on sorting that out rather than bringing in private sector companies. They are not better value because they will exploit our eventual dependency on them.'

The publication of the prospectus marks a milestone in the government's plans to introduce a mixed managed market, where care is provided by traditional NHS hospitals and clinics, the UK private sector, voluntary organisations and overseas providers.

PFjun2002

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