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Companies entering the UK are often advised to consider private health insurance, to ensure prompt access to care.
Growing waiting times are a key driver of the increase in private healthcare use. The NHS are also sending more patients to private facilities, understandable, with national waiting lists well beyond 7 million.
The adoption of medical insurance has grown in recent years, with how this is used reflecting people’s health needs. A recent AXA statement mentioned dermatology as one of the main areas where private treatment is being sought.
With 8 million people now holding health insurance and others self funding, a fair proportion of patients can access private care. They will be able to see experienced staff and receive swift, up to date treatment.
The need is still there to consider those who can not access this support, along with the reasons why state care is stumbling.
The NHS On The NHS
Almost every reason imaginable has been voiced for NHS decline and with an election looming, we will keep hearing opinions. May be more help to consider the NHS’s own view, laid out in a 2024 comprehensive study on efficiency.
They cite background reasons, the pandemic, strikes, funding changes, although they do not see funding as having declined. There is equally an admittance of the need to improve efficiency and training.
The latter is partly due to the numbers of experienced, knowledgeable staff who have left the NHS. Overall numbers are up rather than down but an increase in the levels of inexperienced, junior staff calls for more support.
These are all factors which to a degree are within the control of NHS management but they state that a primary factor is not. At least half the problem is people being in hospital solely due to a “teetering social care system”.
Despite promises to address the issue, the number of people stuck in hospital is 15% higher than before the pandemic. Not the patient’s fault, or the hospital’s, yet a significant consumer of care and resources.
The Bed Shortage
In April 2024, 1 in 6 hospital beds nationally were filled by someone who should no longer have been there, 1 in 3 in the worst affected areas.
Compared to other nations, the UK has a low total number of hospital beds relative to population. The average number of beds per 1,000 people in developed nations is 5, in Germany 7.8, in the UK just 2.4.
UK hospitals can suffer bed shortages at any time, or perhaps fail to cope with large influxes of patients in winter. They become unable to provide safe and timely care and delays to patients grow.
The Private Contribution
Bed blocking, staffing issues and other factors have created a position where private providers now carry out more than 10% of NHS elective care.
Whilst there are detractors, this brings valuable treatment to a significant number of patients. No sector is perfect but in general, those patients will have received timely care, in a modern, professional environment.
People’s health will have been restored, their ability to live their life. Their families and friends are less concerned, the economy benefits, from faster returns to employment and less need for support.
Many of our staff have past NHS associations and wish them well, along with those waiting for care. Offering medical dermatology privately helps to support both and provides freedom of choice.