Exclusive: NHSE pushes ‘private patient opportunities’ in leaked guidance

The NHS England document, leaked to HSJ, includes instructions to local leaders for the new financial year starting in April.

It said: “Trusts should continue to actively explore and develop opportunities to grow their external (non-NHS) income… Private patient services continue to be a significant source of material opportunity in the NHS.”

It adds that NHS England and NHS Improvement will work with trusts to “identify and scale-up NHS export opportunities and support development of private patient opportunities to generate revenue and provide benefits for NHS staff and local patients and services”.

A number of trusts, particularly in London, generate substantial income from privately paying patients, some of whom travel from overseas.

The draft guidance, titled Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance for 2022/23, has been circulated to local trust leaders within the last few months. A final version has yet to be published.

It comes as the NHS faces huge backlogs of elective patients waiting for treatment. NHSE’s own plan to recover from covid said the waiting list could rise to 14 million, up from the current 6 million.

Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said the guidance was “capitalising” on the surge in people paying for private treatment during the pandemic. The number of self-payers has risen dramatically, with major provider Spire reporting revenue from self-funders in 2021 was up 80 per cent over the equivalent period in 2019.

Ms Gainsbury said: “It is a concern that with over 6 million patients on the NHS waiting list, NHS England is actively encouraging NHS trusts to expand their private patient activity.

“Scarce NHS capacity should be focused and prioritised on treating NHS patients and bringing these unacceptable waits down, not capitalising on the growth in the private treatment market on the back of this unprecedented backlog of care.”

NHS England said in a statement: ”While this is draft guidance, private patient services have always been a source of income for NHS trusts and therefore, a way of funding additional care and treatments for NHS patients — this proposal would return these services to no more than pre-pandemic levels.”

The unpublished guidance accompanies the planning rules published in December 2021, which set out the health service’s priorities for the 2022-23 financial year.

Updated at 8.30pm with additional statement from NHSE.