Streeting defends NHS use of private sector but says it must ‘pull its weight’
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Health secretary accused of talking ‘utter nonsense’ about private sector’s ability to help cut NHS waiting times. Wes Streeting has defended the growing use of the private sector to help tackle long waiting lists for treatment but said providers must “pull their weight” and not take resources away from the NHS.
The health secretary, who has previously said “middle-class lefties” risked putting ideological purity ahead of patient care, said he would be “entirely pragmatic” about using spare capacity in the private sector. The government announced this week that private hospitals would provide NHS patients in England with as many as 1m extra appointments, scans and operations a year as part of the drive to end the backlog.
“The Tories opened up in this country a two-tier system where those who could afford it would be paying to go private, being seen faster, and those who couldn’t were being left behind,” Streeting said. “It is a point of principle to me that we end that two-tier system. Where there is spare capacity in the independent sector we will use it. We have agreed that we will work with them, and they will work with us to cut NHS waiting times.”.
But he added: “At the same time the independent sector has to pull its weight. It’s got to be genuinely additional capacity. “I’m entirely pragmatic about this … The independent healthcare sector isn’t going anywhere, and it can help us out of the hole we’re in. We would be mad not to.”.
But the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, which tracks NHS privatisation, said Streeting was talking “utter nonsense” about the private sector providing extra capacity because almost all the doctors it uses to perform operations are NHS staff.
