Hospitals will be able to earn 49% of their income from private patients from October

NHS hospitals in England will be able to increase the proportion of money they earn from private patients to 49% from 1 October, the Department of Health has announced.

The change to how much money foundation trusts can earn from non-NHS work was introduced in the Health and Social Care Act.1 The original bill had said that there was nothing to stop a foundation trust from making all its money from private patients. But during its passage through the House of Lords peers voted in an amendment that said that most of …