The costs are huge compared with those of providing

[samia95]

Theoretically, if somebody is treated in a private hospital, and then has to be transferred to the NHS, and is there for the rest of their life, then I think that perhaps the NHS should be examining whether they ought to be claiming back the cost of this from private insurers”’. (The Observer, 2 June 96: ‘The NHS is now paying £750 per week for her care.’) * NHS ICU costs: Private Eye, May 1996: ‘Of course, whenever there's a cock-up, patients who survive will be ferried back to an NHS intensive care unit for the taxpayer to pick up the tab.’ And Prof John Ward, letter, Guardian, 7 Feb 1994: ‘.. when a surgical patient develops a serious complication in a private hospital and requires [NHS] intensive care.. [this costs] £1,000 a day..’ And four doctors, Lower Clapton Health Centre, London, letter, Guardian, 21 Feb 1992.


‘Picking up the tab in emergencies’:


The NHS, not the private sector, always picks up the costs of emergency treatment. planned elective surgery. An NHS hospital may “charge” more than a private hospital for elective procedures [the reason some GP fundholders send NHS patients to private hospitals] to cover the cost of emergency services.’ And Labour, David Blunkett MP, ‘Going phone number lists Private’, Sept 1994: ‘Reliance on the NHS—the independent health sector provides only a limited range of medical procedures and treatment. There is clear dependence on the NHS as a backup for treatment that the commercial sector can not, or will not, provide.’ And Channel 4 News, 29 Apr 1999: “There are no official figures published on the number of botched private operations, and private medicine doesn't discuss how often it has to depend on the NHS to put things right when it doesn't have the expertise or the facilities to do it itself.



We can say that one thousand times a


Year an intensive care bed in an NHS hospital is taken up by a private hospital patient.” * Costs of staff training, and of equipment and supplies: Commercial Medicine in London: ‘Private hospitals depend on staff [doctors and nurses] trained by the Health Service at the taxpayers' expense.. The private hospitals' contribution to post-basic training is.. negligible.’ [Letter in Health Service Journal, 15 Oct 98, said ‘It costs more than £200,000 to train [sic] a doctor from scratch.’ The average for a nurse is estimated at £30,000 (BBC, 1998)] The authors also state: ‘Generally speaking, it is the private sector that relies on the NHS rather than the other way around.