Indepentent's Investigation

Basically : Private hospital does treatments paid for by the NHS (Note: It only does this when it has beds empty of private patients). For any given operation, NHS fee is less than they charge private patients for the same op. Hospital management try to enforce arbitrary and un-necessary delay of four weeks and rising on NHS funded operations in an attempt to 'encourage' those patients to go private, where they will get treated more quickly but at their own cost, and the health care provider will make more profit.

Note : Any doctor who agreed to this, were it to later be discovered, would be in breach of the basic tenant of the hippocratic oath, and would be at risk of being struck off.


Jon

Re: the hippocratic oath - outdated and no one swears by it these days. It makes you swear by three deities (I think) which would probably horrify most of you atheists on here.

This isn't the worry for me, as it's private hospitals treating NHS patients. What worries me is that part of the NHS reforms means hospitals can take in more work from the private sector. Let's say you get admitted to hospital and you need a procedure. At the moment, you get prioritised on clinical basis ie those who need say a scan first (eg trauma patient) will get it more quickly than someone who isn't as urgent. The worry is that NHS hospitals would prioritise private patients over NHS ones because they generate more income.

This is part of the reason why doctors were against the health reforms. The worry is that it is a move to privatisation where the rich get treated quickly and the poor suffer.

you mean the Americana way of health care ...