To ask why private hospitals can’t be requisitioned again

[ReadShakespeareonce]

They were in the first wave why can’t private hospitals be requestioned by the NHS?

I think at the moment they're doing non covid related NHS work, a man I know is having a hip replacement at the local private hospital next month & my upcoming gynae appt has been switched to my consultants clinic there too. I know other people who have their appts moved to private hospitals as well

@BernardsarenotalwaysSaints

I think at the moment they're doing non covid related NHS work, a man I know is having a hip replacement at the local private hospital next month & my upcoming gynae appt has been switched to my consultants clinic there too. I know other people who have their appts moved to private hospitals as well

Does the NHS pay for this?

I think they still are. Certainly my treatment (NHS but in a private hospital) has been completely halted until mid January, but I anticipate it being cancelled again.

@Lougle

I think they still are. Certainly my treatment (NHS but in a private hospital) has been completely halted until mid January, but I anticipate it being cancelled again.

That’s not my experience at all

At present they are able to select whom they see and what they do, they are also undertaking backlog work for nhs trusts who were overwhelmed 1st and subsequent wave

A for profit company cannot easily be requestioned, that’d be nationalisation. They can however be heavily compelled to help out

They are being used. I had an emergency gallbladder removal operation shortly before Christmas at a private hospital as an NHS patient. Most surgery is being done there to keep vulnerable patients away from Covid wards.

They are being , in effect, requisitioned by the NHS.
They're doing much NHS now as Covid has taken up much of NHS care.
Private hospitals have taken the overflow from the NHS for a number of years now., as my frail mum can testify.

@ReadShakespeareonce the NHS has paid for private hospitals to do NHS work for years. Normally they NHS will pay the private hospital what it would cost on the NHS and if the private hospital has spare capacity it is better to get some money in than none.

They are absolutely still doing routine nhs stuff.

Yes the private hospitals are being used to generate capacity in nhs hospitals and reduce backlog

Yes, the NHS are paying massively to send patients to private hospitals but can you imagine the waiting lists if we weren't??
We will be paying for this situation for generations

They are. A family friend has had a nhs operation at a private hospital

I pay £80 per month in private medical insurance so I can have shorter waiting times, choose my hospital and consultant. It's not ok to just decide that the NHS are "taking over".

The trust I work for has used private hospitals for surgery/cancer care and other non covid work since early in the in the pandemic. It already uses the same hospital to help with waiting lists for surgery in non covid times too.

Presumably but how should I know? You asked why they aren't being used & I said that in my area they are.

Perhaps because the “overwhelming” hasn’t actually ever happened just been talked about a lot.

NHS has always paid for private hospitals to do stuff.

@Crumbleandcake

I pay £80 per month in private medical insurance so I can have shorter waiting times, choose my hospital and consultant. It's not ok to just decide that the NHS are "taking over".

Bollocks to the peasants who use the NHS and all those pesky people with Covid ?

@Crumbleandcake

I pay £80 per month in private medical insurance so I can have shorter waiting times, choose my hospital and consultant. It's not ok to just decide that the NHS are "taking over".

Your insurance is likely to offer you a rebate, do check with them.

Not only are private hospitals doing work from NHS lists for the NHS, they are also full of desperate people who cannot get NHS treatment.

We need to get vaccinating very, very quickly and by the million. The clunky way people are being vaccinated now will take years to get through the population. I’d personally shut schools until the start of Feb and use the time to vaccinate everyone who will take the vaccine en masse - car parks, stadiums, wherever.

I don’t think stuffing private hospitals with Covid patients is the answer.

And it seems ludicrous to requisition functioning hospitals when we have the nightingales.

They are aren’t they? My DH can’t get his non critical op done at the moment (completely understandably) but would usually be have seen at our local private hospital weeks ago!

@Crumbleandcake

I pay £80 per month in private medical insurance so I can have shorter waiting times, choose my hospital and consultant. It's not ok to just decide that the NHS are "taking over".

I really really hope you're just being deliberately goady here for some reason, and this isn't what you actually think.

If it is, fuck me, have a heart.

Independent hospitals already have large NHS contracts for low risk elective work. That continues to be the case.

Much NHS work is not elective and not low risk. Independent hospitals are not equipped or staffed to manage very poorly, unstable or frail patients. They cannot manage speciality work. They cannot usually take children or maternity services. They cannot generally offer critical care facilities or staffing.

A hospital is not always the same thing. Independent hospitals generally admit well patients for elective treatment with a short, easy to plan stay. They do well at that.

Apart from a few very large services, they usually have one RMO junior doctor providing all direct medical care. Consultants pop in to see patients but are not around most of the time. There are no middle grades usually.

They also don’t have many beds.

Crumbleandcake
I pay £80 per month in private medical insurance so I can have shorter waiting times, choose my hospital and consultant. It's not ok to just decide that the NHS are "taking over".

Was it never explained to you that private hospitals offer treatment to NHS patients all the time? Paid for by the NHS? You £80 per month helps fund the hospital to do this

As hard as this is to imagine but the NHS as a health commissioner (acting like an insurance company ) is a very big player in the health sector. When it wants to flex that muscle it can push everyone off the field.