NHS Waiting Lists Causing Private Healthcare to Soar
A medical emergency is brewing in the United Kingdom. NHS waiting lists continue to rise, and we can’t see any signs that the backlog will reduce soon.
As the number of health cases in the public system increases, more people are visiting private hospitals for medical care. And can you blame them? Nearly half of the patients on the NHS waiting list have been on hold for weeks. Thousands of them have even been waiting for more than a year.
The logical option would obviously be to seek faster treatments, even if it means paying more. Private healthcare facilities not only have the personnel for immediate procedures, they also have the equipment.
Recent innovations like the self retaining retractor help these hospitals execute surgeries faster, saving time to cater to more patients.
NHS Backlog Hits 7.6 Million Cases
Recent data from August shows that there are 7.64 million individuals awaiting medical attention in the current backlog. More than three million people have been on this list for 18 weeks, while 282,700 cases have been pending for more than a year.
Surprisingly, the current figures don’t include individuals waiting for follow-up procedures or those requiring non-consultant-led treatment. So, the overall numbers could be even higher.
Why NHS Waiting Lists Continue to Rise
Many factors are behind the rising numbers in the NHS waiting list. The COVID-19 pandemic is possibly the most notable. During the lockdowns, the NHS suspended non-urgent cases to handle COVID-19 emergencies.
However, more than 4 million cases were already on the waiting list before this period. We didn’t see any notable increase in these numbers during the lockdowns since patients couldn’t reach their healthcare providers because of pandemic-related cases.
When the pandemic eased, more people returned to hospitals. As such, the numbers skyrocketed.
Staffing is another factor affecting the backlog. The NHS lacks the hands to attend to patients joining the waiting list. As of June 2023, the public healthcare system had 112,000 vacancies. Nursing vacancies make up more than 40,000 of these openings.
Recent strikes by junior doctors in June 2024 made matters worse. Around 1.5 million medical appointments were affected during this period, as 23,000 personnel were unavailable to treat patients. The UK’s ageing population and limited funding for public healthcare have also affected the numbers on the NHS waiting list.
Patients Turn to Private Medical Services for Relief
Public healthcare centres can no longer handle the medical emergencies in the United Kingdom. So, patients are visiting private facilities for their medical needs. Private hospitals have already seen a record number of admissions in 2023, with nearly 900,000 treatments carried out last year.
In the first half of the year alone, 443,000 individuals visited private medical establishments, a 7% increase compared to 2022. Insurance policies covered more than 300,000 of these admissions, a figure that’s 12% higher than the previous year.
Self-pay cases also hit an all-time record, sitting at 73,000 in the early months of 2023. Interestingly, nearly half of the patients treated in private healthcare facilities mentioned the NHS waiting list as the primary reason for seeking remedy elsewhere.
Closing Thoughts
Public medical care in the UK is almost beyond reach because of the growing NHS backlog. As such, more people are going to private hospitals for treatment. But these services are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. Finding a solution to the NHS waiting list is important for individuals who cannot pay for private healthcare.
