Record number pay for ops to beat backlog

RECORD numbers of patients are paying for their own operations because of the NHS waiting list ‘crisis’.

One private hospital chain has seen the number of ‘self-pay’ patients for hip operations more than double since Covid began.

Spire, which has 40 sites, told in a recent note to investors of ‘record self-pay performance’, adding: ‘NHS waiting list continues to rise, supporting growth in self-pay [revenues].’

Rival HCA Healthcare has seen a 25 per cent increase in self-pay orthopaedic patients and similar rises in those requiring cardiac and brain surgery. Retired dental nurse Christine Worrall, 71, took out an £18,000 loan for a knee op at Spire Manchester last month after being told she faced at least an 18-month wait on the NHS. ‘I was just in so much pain,’ she said.

A record 5.6 million people are on an NHS waiting list, with the backlog expected to grow. Labour’s Health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘More and more hard-pressed working people are now forced to take out loans, or even crowd-fund online, to pay thousands for operations simply because waiting times have become so unbearable. This is a crisis.’

New Victoria Hospital, in Kingston, SouthWest London, has seen self-pay in-patients rise by two-thirds since 2019. Giles Heilpern, a knee and shoulder surgeon, said they now made up 40 per cent of his private practice there, ‘almost double’ the proportion pre-pandemic.

A Department for Health spokesman said: ‘Our record investment is helping to tackle the backlog in the NHS, including £2 billion this year and £8 billion over the next three years.’