The NHS is preparing to spend up to £10billion outsourcing work to private hospitals in a bid to cut waiting lists.
Private hospitals are expected to take on some of the workload that has built up over the past few months as part of a four-year deal.
The outsourced work aims to cut waiting lists, which are forecast ‘to increase as a result of Covid-19 interrupting and reducing NHS capacity’.
Waiting lists have soared to record levels during the Covid-19 pandemic as a result of thousands of non-urgent operations being cancelled.
Around 1.85million people have waited more than 18 weeks for routine treatment in England — the most since records began more than a decade ago.
Experts fear 10million people may be waiting for treatment by Christmas. A second wave will cause even more chaos in the NHS.
It comes amid concerns about delays to cancer care caused by coronavirus, which has led medics to warn survival rates will plummet.
Doctors said the NHS is facing ‘worrying times’ in the wake of the pandemic and that ‘performance remains poor’ in hospitals around the country.
The NHS is preparing to spend up to £10billion outsourcing work to private hospitals in a bid to cut waiting lists, it has been reported
Private hospitals have already been involved with tackling the Covid-19 crisis in the UK so far.
More than 8,000 private beds in England were bought in March at an estimated cost of £2.4million a day, in anticipation of NHS hospitals being overwhelmed.
But the health service’s intensive care wards were not overrun during the peak of the pandemic and the majority of the private beds went unused.
The idea was to use private hospitals as ‘Covid-free hubs’ to take on the load of other care for vulnerable people, such as for cancer patients.
But consultants have warned few private hospitals are operating as Covid-free hubs and claim hundreds of the country’s best doctors have been left ‘twiddling their thumbs’.
Despite this, there have been talks about extending an agreement with private hospitals to relieve pressure on the NHS in case of a second wave this winter.
The £10billion figure emerged in a contract notice seen by the specialist publication Health Service Journal.
It said that the number was ‘based on a potential upper value over a four-year period, actual value will depend on actual demand’.
Private providers have also been asked to register their interest in providing ‘NHS inpatient non-elective care’ by the end of the month.
It will include testing and MRI scans, inpatient and outpatient treatment for urgent planned care and cancer therapy.
NHS England said it would award a series of contracts to private hospital groups by November.
The NHS and the Treasury were reportedly stuck in an argument about the health service’s demands for an extra £10billion to clear a backlog in surgery patients.
Sources last month said bosses were ‘at complete loggerheads’ as the NHS tried to return to normality.
It comes after the Financial Times reported NHS England is considering an agreement under which it would book out a majority of private hospital beds for between eight months and two years.
Under this plan, individual agreements could be struck on a regional basis, limited to certain times of day, or cover only some specialities.
For example, all hip and knee replacements in a particular area of the country could be outsourced to private hospitals.
The paper reported the government is in discussions with the private healthcare providers about a new deal.
It is hoped the private sector will alleviate the backlog of 1.85million people who have been waiting longer than 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment in England — the highest number since records began in 2007.
The number of people waiting more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment in England also rose to 50,536, according to NHS figures released last week.
It is the biggest year-long waiting list since February 2009. By contrast, only 1,089 had been waiting 12 months for treatment last June.
The number of patients admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was down 67 per cent in June compared to a year ago.
A total of 94,354 patients were admitted for treatment during the month, down from 289,203 in June 2019.
Thousands of non-urgent operations were cancelled during the peak of the crisis, in a desperate attempt to prevent Covid-19 from overwhelming the already struggling health service.
Medical imaging and cancer screening appointments have also slumped during the pandemic, which is expected to have a knock-on effect.
NHS England figures show that a total of 153,134 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in June 2020, down from 194,047 in June 2019 – a drop of 21 per cent.
This is the number of people referred to a cancer consultant by a GP for a first appointment.
Cancer treatment waiting times in England have soared to another record high. Only 93.7 per cent of patients in June were treated within a month of being told they needed drugs, surgery or radiotherapy.
Separate data showed only 12.9 per cent of patients diagnosed with cancer after a screening appointment got treated within the target time of two months.
For comparison, the rate was 85.8 per cent last June, and the target is 90 per cent.
Screening is mostly done on women and checks for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.
Death rates from bowel cancer are estimated to soar by up to 17 per cent because of delayed diagnoses, research by London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has shown.
This would cause the five-year survival rate to drop to around 51.5 per cent — similar to levels seen in 2003, and survival outcomes for breast and oesophageal cancer may drop to levels seen in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
Catching tumours in their earliest stage before they are able to spread around the body is critical to survival.
Macmillan Cancer Support called for the backlog of patients to be addressed to prevent cancer from becoming the forgotten ‘C’ in the coronavirus pandemic.
Today, Sara Bainbridge, the head of policy and influence at the charity, welcomed the news of the private sector.
She said: ‘We have been calling on the government to ensure the NHS has everything it needs to tackle disruption in cancer care.
‘Behind the backlog are real people waiting anxiously for diagnoses and treatment.
‘There is a lot of work to be done so all patients get the tests and treatment they need. We need to see a timebound recovery plan that shows how the NHS will tackle the backlog.’
Peter Walsh, of the charity Action against Medical Accidents, said more patients could lose their lives due to the disruption than from Covid-19 itself, The Times reported.
He said: ‘Cancer patients are a major concern, with research estimating up to 35,000 extra deaths, but other patients are at risk too.
‘The failure [of the Government] to grasp the seriousness of this issue is deeply offensive.’
A government spokeswoman said: ‘The NHS has continued to treat cancer patients as a priority. Anyone who needs treatment should come forward.’
They noted the Prime Minister recently said he would give a cash boost of £300million to upgrade A&E facilities at 117 NHS trusts.
But Dr Nick Scriven, of the Society for Acute Medicine which represents hospital doctors, said ‘it will take more than a token cash injection to make up for years of neglect’.
Speaking in response to the NHS figures last week, he said: ‘These are worrying times for the NHS given the threat of a second wave of Covid-19 in addition to all of the other pre-existing issues such as bed capacity, staffing, funding and social care provision.
‘Performance remains poor and concerning and, with what we know will be a challenging winter ahead, it will take more than a token cash injection announced by the Prime Minister this week to make up for years of neglect.’
An NHS spokesman said: ‘Tens of thousands more people will be able to benefit from quicker access to surgery and other procedures.
‘As we move into the next phase of the NHS response to the pandemic, this new deal with the majority of independent providers is based more closely on activity, which will allow taxpayers to get best value from investment.’