The big rush to go private! The number of Britons paying for hospital treatment reaches a record 900,000
A record number of Britons ditched the NHS to go private last year amid lengthy delays.
Around 898,000 people in Britain sought treatment in a private hospital in 2023, figures revealed today.
It marks a seven percent jump from the previous record of 836,000 set in 2022 and a 15 percent increase on pre-pandemic admissions.
Long waits for routine NHS procedures are blamed for the rising trend, with 7.54 million treatments now in the queue.
The £150bn-a-year service is creaking at the seams and has been battered by an exodus of staff, Covid-19-induced backlogs and a series of strikes.
Data on the number of Britons who have left the NHS has been published by the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN), which shares information on the performance and fees of private consultants and hospitals.
Northern Ireland saw the highest peak in private hospital admissions, up 56 percent from 2022.
This was followed by Scotland, with an increase of 11 percent. Admissions in Wales and England grew at a similar level, by seven and six percent respectively.
The increase in demand for paid care is driven by the continued growth in the number of insured treatments – 621,000, compared to 561,000 in 2022.
Experts believe this is because more and more companies and households have turned to private healthcare plans to protect the health of employees due to the increasing difficulties in getting treatment on the NHS.
Meanwhile, 278,000 admissions were self-financed by patients in 2023, compared to 275,000 in 2022.
However, the number of self-paid admissions decreased slightly by two percent in the fourth quarter of the year.
Experts have previously attributed the decline to the cost of living crisis and a reduction in private cosmetic treatments in Britain, amid a wave of Brits traveling abroad for options such as liposuction and breast enlargements.
PHIN chief executive Dr Ian Gargan said: ‘These record figures demonstrate the important role the private sector plays in the country’s healthcare, something recognized by the major political parties.
‘With NHS waiting lists at record levels, a growing number of people are looking for alternatives, choosing to use the private sector rather than risk a long wait and potentially see their health deteriorate.
‘The number of people using private health insurance, or choosing to ‘self-pay’ for their procedure, has increased despite the difficult economic conditions in recent years, demonstrating the importance people place on their health.
Cataract surgery was the most popular private procedure in 2023 (71,575), followed by chemotherapy (66,210).
Hip and knee replacements, colonoscopy and endoscopy were other in-demand options.
This is despite some treatments costing more than £15,000. Some providers offer monthly deals.
The latest NHS data shows that 309,300 people in England had waited more than 52 weeks for routine hospital treatment at the end of March, up from 305,050 at the end of February.
The government and NHS England have set an ambition to eliminate all waiting times of more than a year by March 2025.
But at the end of March, there were still 48,968 patients who had waited more than 65 weeks to start treatment, up from 75,004 in February.
Last week, the British Medical Association (BMA) also announced that junior doctors in England will stage a six-day strike from 7am on June 27 to 7am on July 2 – just 48 hours before the general election.
More than a million appointments and operations have been canceled due to the wave of NHS strikes that started in 2022.
The BMA claims his demands are for ‘pay recovery’ as previous NHS salary increases for doctors since 2008 have failed to keep pace with inflation.
It is the eleventh strike by the medics after their first attack in March 2023.