NHS is outsourcing 10 TIMES more hip operations than it was a decade ago as it struggles to meet the demand of a growing waiting list
- Long waiting lists force hospitals to outsource routine operations every year
- Royal College of Surgeons say young surgeons not getting experience needed
- NHS outsourced one in five hip ops in 2012/13- compared to one in 50 in 2004
- Official government figures last year showed number had risen to one in three
The number of NHS-funded hip replacements carried out at private hospitals has risen tenfold in a decade, research shows.
Experts fear record-long waiting lists are forcing busy hospitals to outsource tens of thousands of the routine operations every year.
The Royal College of Surgeons has warned the rise means young surgeons are not getting the experience they need.
The number of NHS-funded hip operations carried out at private hospitals has trebled in five years, figures show
Researchers from Newcastle University and Queen Mary University of London made the finding.
They looked at the number of pre-planned (elective) hip replacements funded by the NHS between 2002 and 2012.
Results showed the NHS outsourced around one in five (14,326) of its operations in 2012/13. The figure is likely to be even higher in recent years.
In contrast, the figure was closer to the one in 50 mark (1,050) in 2004/5, according to the study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
In November, official figures revealed the number of outsourced hip replacements had climbed even further to around one in three.
The study comes as a waiting list crisis ravages the health service, with the number of people waiting for treatment in March being more than ever.
A total of 4.23million people in England were waiting for routine hospital treatment in March, a rise of 90,000 on the previous month.
Waiting times have soared by 40 per cent since 2014, with the average wait for a hip replacement now four and a half months.
But patients often wait up to a year, even when they’re in severe pain and struggle to walk.
The Newcastle researchers also warned that private hospitals were less likely to operate on older patients from more deprived areas.
They found the number of private operations on NHS patients most affluent areas increased by 288 per cent between 2007/8 and 2012/13.
Whereas the increase was far less, 186 per cent, among patients from poorer backgrounds.
Professor Allyson Pollock, director of the institute of health and society at Newcastle University, said: ‘In 2017, over one-third of NHS-funded elective hip operations were performed by the private sector.
‘If the trends here continue, whereby private provision substitutes for NHS direct provision, with risk selection favouring less deprived patients, then widening inequalities are likely.’
Professor Neil Mortensen, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the NHS was looking to the private sector to relieve some of the pressure of ‘unacceptably long waiting lists’.
He added: ‘While we recognise the need to use the independent sector so that patients can be treated more quickly in the short term, it risks drawing resources, for example nursing staff, away from the NHS in the long term.
‘It also has an impact on surgical training. Many trainees are unable to access training opportunities in the independent sector.
‘Ultimately, NHS capacity needs to grow to meet patient demand. The NHS needs a robust plan to deal with the backlog of patients waiting for treatment, within the next five years.
‘This should include a commitment to increase the number of NHS hospital beds, whether by building new wards or reopening wards that have been mothballed and recruiting the necessary staff to tackle this backlog.’