25 February 2005
Doctors have attacked the use of private sector treatment centres and claimed the competition could force NHS hospitals to close.
Until now, the British Medical Association has taken a pragmatic stance on using the private sector to reduce waiting lists, believing the initiative would benefit patients and open up opportunities in private practice for its members.
However, its attitude has hardened this week following Health Secretary John Reid's announcement that he would spend £1bn procuring 2 million additional diagnostic tests a year for NHS patients.
The procurement is a key element in Reid's plan to reduce patients' total waiting times to 18 weeks by 2008. Many are stuck in a bottleneck waiting for diagnosis and the target will not be achieved if this is not tackled.
'In buying extra capacity from the independent sector, we will significantly increase the NHS-funded diagnostic provision and increase the numbers of expert staff such as radiologists to provide these services for NHS patients, with equal access free at the point of delivery,' he said.
However, BMA deputy chair Sam Everington said private sector diagnosis and surgery was a 'wonderful idea on paper'.
'They are forcing NHS hospitals to compete with the private sector and in a market there are winners and losers. NHS trusts will lose money. The natural consequences are for units to close. Some local hospitals will then become increasingly unsustainable.'
Patients would suffer as private units were not open around the clock. 'At 3am, patients go to NHS hospitals because they provide both emergency and integrated care.'
'It is misleading for John Reid to claim that treatment centres provide services faster than NHS hospitals, when for a large number of patients they provide no service at all,' he said.
Foundation trusts have been lobbying ministers to be allowed to bid for the diagnostic work, as well as the latest phase of elective surgery procurement. It is unlikely bids will be invited from foundations. But a Department of Health spokesman declined to comment before adverts are placed in the Official journal of the European communities.
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