Private firms to tackle NHS waits

Nov 26, 2004 18:49 IST

Health Minister Andy Kerr has confirmed he will use private health care to help cut waiting lists in Scotland.

Mr Kerr said he is looking to the private sector to provide additional capacity within the NHS.
He suggested private companies would be tied to long-term contracts but vowed the proposals would not lead to staff leaving the NHS to work privately.

Opposition parties said the plans were a u-turn by the Scottish Executive and doctors’ leaders expressed concern.

Health supplement

Mr Kerr was speaking as new figures showed thousands of patients are continuing to wait more than 6 months for outpatients appointments across Scotland.

He told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland on Thursday, Mr Kerr denied that claims of a political turnaround by the executive were untrue.

He said: We’ve been using the private sector for many years and we’ve used that capacity here in Scotland.

What I want to do is to make sure we engage with them more strategically, perhaps on a more long-term basis, in order to deal with some big issues around making sure we get our waiting lists down.

The vast majority of people in Scotland get a great service from the NHS but at the end of the day we’re dealing with longer waits in the health service.

We want to go further and make more in-roads into that and that’s what I’m going to do.

What I want to bring here to the health service in Scotland is a supplementary support, not to replace the National Health Service but to supplement the health service.

Mr Kerr held talks with private health care providers earlier in the week and is expected to announce the details of his plans to parliament next month.

The Scottish Conservatives said the move was too little too late and was a mirror of their policies on the health service in Scotland.

The party’s chief whip, Bill Aitken, speaking on the same programme, said: The fact of the matter is that Andy Kerr is now doing what we have been asking him to do, indeed demanding that he do, for several years.

He has had to be dragged kicking and screaming towards a degree of reality in this matter but frankly it’s only one, very, very small step and it’s far too little and far too late.

The Scottish National Party questioned how the executive will pay for the plans and suggested it could lead to staffing and further service problems.

Staff fears

Health spokeswoman Shona Robison said: Where is the money coming from to fund this extra service from the private sector and where are the staff coming from to staff it?

I think the doctors and nurses required by the private sector to massively expand in Scotland will inevitably come from within the NHS which will just lead to more retention and recruitment problems within the health service and will make matters worse and affect service delivery even more.

But Mr Kerr countered that he could not ignore the problems faced by the NHS and promised Ms Robison’s fears would not be realised.

He said: I will make sure, and ensure in this process, that we will not be robbing Peter to pay Paul, that those who come to work and help us here in Scotland will not be taking from the health service in Scotland any of the clinicians, doctors and nurses, who provide that support.

BMA Scotland said the failure to make a significant impact on waiting times was a cause for concern.

Dr Peter Terry said: We are increasingly concerned by the commitment that the Scottish Executive is now making to long-term contracts with private sector providers.

While this may appear attractive to politicians, it is not the solution.

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