Re: Healthcare for everyone: the trials and tribulations of the NHS model
Timmins downplays NHS spending on the private sector putting the figure at <8%, as often quoted by government and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
David Rowland, Director of the ‘Centre for Health and the Public Interest’, has scrutinised this claim recently (1). His examination of accounts from the past six years suggest it is in fact a gross underestimate. The DHSC choose not to include payments to local authorities even though these end up in the independent sector. Large and growing payments from the NHS to private providers for elective surgery are also excluded from the figures, as are payments to retailers such as Boots and Specsavers. Similarly, despite being almost entirely privately provided, payments made for social care are missed out.
In addition, the DHSC wrongly presents expenditure on private care as a percentage of their total budget, rather than of the amount they get specifically for the NHS - making the overall percentage look smaller. Leaving aside payments to GPs, Rowland shows that the overall percentage should be 18% rather than 7% (a 23% increase over the last 5 years), with 53,000 contracts underpinning the flow of money from the NHS to the private sector. The government and DHSC are anxious for voters to believe that little of taxpayers’ money for health care finds its way to the private sector. Despite this claim being much parroted by the media, Rowland clearly shows that this is simply disinformation.
Rapid Response:
Re: Healthcare for everyone: the trials and tribulations of the NHS model
Timmins downplays NHS spending on the private sector putting the figure at <8%, as often quoted by government and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
David Rowland, Director of the ‘Centre for Health and the Public Interest’, has scrutinised this claim recently (1). His examination of accounts from the past six years suggest it is in fact a gross underestimate. The DHSC choose not to include payments to local authorities even though these end up in the independent sector. Large and growing payments from the NHS to private providers for elective surgery are also excluded from the figures, as are payments to retailers such as Boots and Specsavers. Similarly, despite being almost entirely privately provided, payments made for social care are missed out.
In addition, the DHSC wrongly presents expenditure on private care as a percentage of their total budget, rather than of the amount they get specifically for the NHS - making the overall percentage look smaller. Leaving aside payments to GPs, Rowland shows that the overall percentage should be 18% rather than 7% (a 23% increase over the last 5 years), with 53,000 contracts underpinning the flow of money from the NHS to the private sector. The government and DHSC are anxious for voters to believe that little of taxpayers’ money for health care finds its way to the private sector. Despite this claim being much parroted by the media, Rowland clearly shows that this is simply disinformation.
1. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/nhs-spending-on-the-independen...
Competing interests: No competing interests