How the private healthcare system is growing in the wake of NHS struggles
As the health service buckles under lengthy waiting lists exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, patients are increasingly turning to private providers for their healthcare.The surge in demand has meant the value of the private healthcare market balloned to a record £12.4 billion in 2023, with the NHS splashing out more than £2bn over the year in a bid to ease the patient backlog, new research shows.Last year’s NHS annual spend was a record outside of the pandemic when emergency funding was given, according to the new report by market research company LaingBuisson.The report authors are warning that NHS’s use...
‘Waiting for NHS care and lack of suitable jobs among parents’ barriers to work’
Not getting the treatment they need from the NHS is the top barrier for almost a quarter of parents currently on welfare support who think they could return to employment in future, according to new charity research.Other obstacles include a lack of suitable or flexible jobs and a fear of losing benefits, a survey suggested.Action for Children said their research contradicted previous comments around a prevailing so-called “sick note culture” with less than one in 10 (8%) of claimants surveyed reporting stress or anxiety to be their primary health condition.For almost three in 10 (29%) of parents their main...
The NHS desperately needs a shot in the arm – the government’s 10 year plan cannot afford to fail
“We offered the nation and those in the NHS a deal. We would spend this money if, but only if, we also changed the chronic system failures of the NHS. Money had to be accompanied by modernisation; investment, by reform.”This mantra, for the NHS to “reform or die”, has been a strong thread in the new government’s approach to the sector, from the moment Keir Starmer came to power. But these quotes are not from the prime minister or even his health secretary Wes Streeting, as they try to sell voters on changes they say can fix the ailing...