Private sector ‘costs NHS dear’

A leading orthopaedic surgeon has blamed Department of Health policies for the poor quality of the private healthcare sector.

Professor Angus Wallace of Nottingham University argued in this week’s edition of the British Medical Journal that the NHS is having to “pick up the pieces” of poor private surgery, caused by an “artificial barrier” between the public and private sectors.

The Department of Health attempts to discourage NHS doctors from transferring to the private sector by enforcing a mandatory six-month gap before doctors are permitted to work for independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs).

Professor Wallace suggested that this principle, known as “additionality”, has the unfortunate side effect of creating a dearth of experienced professionals working for ISTCs, who are replaced by junior surgeons brought in from abroad.

“Now we are seeing the consequences of this philosophy – poor operations, inadequate supervision of surgeons, and a poor mechanism for remedying any problems that occur,” Professor Wallace writes.

“The number of patients we are seeing with problems resulting from poor surgery is too great.”

ISTCs were formed in 2003, designed by the Department of Health “to deliver high quality, cost-effective, scheduled diagnostic and/or treatment services that optimise service efficiency and clinical outcome and maximise patient satisfaction”.

Professor Wallace believes their existence imperils the present high standard of NHS surgeons, who were trained on large numbers of basic routine operations which the ISTCs have now largely monopolised.

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