Apologies. I tried to post the whole article and it kept bringing up 406 errors.

Anyway, I knew NHS hospitals had to meet CQC standards. I figured private hospitals had to as well. What I didn't appreciate is how badly things can go wrong privately.

My own professional experiences have essentially been the NHS sorting out problems from the private sector. Eg a woman has a gastric band fitted privately and pays £10k which includes 12 months follow up. At 13 months, she still has problems but no more money. The surgeon/insurance company won't allow her to be seen privately until she coughs up more money. In desperation, she turns up at A&E so she can be seen by the surgeon.

Not just that but if there are complications during a private operation the patient is then whisked to a NHS hospital for a fix up operation.

May have mentioned this before - I was in hospital one time needing an x-ray, and the guy sat in the queue next to me had a folder of info with the logo of the local private hospital on it. He was a patient there, but having his X-rays done using NHS facilities. So it's not just emergency care where the private sector in fact relies on the NHS.

Are the private hospitals paying the full costs of NHS services like that?


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You'd hope so. However even if they do, they're paying the NHS to do it because they don't want to do it themselves. Generally for a private company that would be because the cost of doing it themselves would be higher. So if the NHS privatisation continues over the long term, it is probable we will either see a reduction in provision of such services or continuity of such services at higher cost to the end user.

Businesses normally collaborate with each other to stop wasteful duplication of effort and investment. If the NHS has a machine with spare capacity, it can amortize the investment without draining other budgets by selling spare capacity. If the machine is old, and newer models are more cost effective, then the private company would have to consider buying the new model themselves. The NHS's interests might then be served best by either selling excess capacity at the price it is worth (possibly below cost), or else perhaps junking its own machine and renting capacity from outside.

In either event, duplication is waste, so it is often sensible for competitors to cooperate and reduce costs for their entire industry rather than waste across the board.