Patients turn to private healthcare as NHS cuts funding

Telegraph

04-06-2025

Patients have turned to private healthcare as the NHS cuts finding to procedures for common conditions.
Private operations such as cataract surgery went up by 39 per cent, hernia repair by 110 per cent and tonsillectomies by 105 per cent since the procedures were deemed 'of limited value' by the NHS, new figures reveal.
Analysis of the latest data from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) also revealed private admissions in England for breast reductions have increased by 61 per cent, and circumcision by 118 per cent.
While carpal tunnel syndrome treatment was up 64 per cent and adenoid removals by 145 per cent, according to statistics.
The numbers have risen since the introduction of a list of procedures NHS commissioners have been guided away from funding.
The Evidence-based Intervention (EBI) list was created to reduce the number of medical or surgical interventions, which could be inappropriate for some patients in some circumstances – and to save the NHS money.
Postcode lottery
Jim Easton, of Practice Plus Group hospitals, which performed the analysis, said: 'It is correct that there are proper eligibility criteria to ensure that only those people who will benefit from surgery are offered it.
'In the last six years, however, through a combination of the Covid backlog, increasing financial pressures on the NHS, and the growing list of procedures they actively try to restrict, we have seen a marked increase in people in debilitating pain or discomfort who are perfect candidates for surgery but can't get the referral.'
He said NHS bosses need to make sure the EBI programme 'is not drifting from one intended to benefit patients' to 'one that is more intent on cost-cutting'.
'More and more patients are voting with their feet and continuing to seek out these surgeries even if they have to pay for them,' he added before warning of a postcode lottery.
'The EBI list has also created a postcode lottery, for example, where in one area it has adopted the list in its entirety and someone would find it almost impossible to get the treatment they need, in another, the NHS commissioners have recognised their population needs and adapted the list.
'The knock-on effect in not offering these treatments is the gradual disappearance of specialists with enough experience in delivering them, or enough younger doctors trained to perform them.'