'SNP hypocrites' claim as NHS earns £5m a year from private care

Published on Monday 21 December 2009 21:46

THE NHS in Scotland is receiving more than £5 million a year for treating private patients, figures revealed yesterday.

The Scottish Labour Party said that in both 2007-8 and 2008-9, about 5.5m had been taken by health boards for providing care to private patients.

This includes patients who pay for treatment directly themselves, as well as where insurance companies pick up the bill or other governments pay if patients are from overseas.

Labour accused the Scottish Government of "hypocrisy", saying the SNP had promised to ban private operations in NHS hospitals while in opposition.

But ministers said income from private patients had fallen 11 per cent in the past two years, and they aimed to make it fall further.

According to Labour, Nicola Sturgeon, as shadow health spokeswoman, said using NHS capacity to treat private patients "amounts to queue-jumping", while John Swinney promised, when he was SNP leader: "No-one will be allowed to jump the queue for scarce NHS resources."

But Labour said private patients were still "jumping the queue".

The party said figures revealed the average wait for IVF treatment in Lothian was three years for NHS-funded patients – and eight months for the privately funded.

NHS Lothian received the most income from private patients in 2008-9, at more than 3.35m, up from 3.1m in 2006-7.

In recent years, health boards have struggled to recoup money owed to them from private sources, with some owed hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Labour's latest figures showed that for the whole NHS, the total income from private patients dropped from 6.15m in 2006-7 to 5.47 million in 2008-9.

Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "These figures expose the health secretary Nicola Sturgeon as a hypocrite. The SNP were absolutely clear in opposition that NHS hospitals would be banned from carrying out private operations.

"She needs to explain why, despite her promises, she has done nothing to stop consultants from carrying out private work. This is another example of the SNP saying one thing in opposition and doing another in government.

"If Nicola Sturgeon had lived up to her promises, private patients would not be able to buy their way to the front of the queue for treatment like IVF, where NHS patients have to wait up to three years."

Public health minister Shona Robison said: "We have always been clear that we are committed to increasing NHS capacity and treating patients as quickly as possible, not increasing private healthcare capacity.

"Waiting times are falling, we are bringing Stracathro (hospital in Angus] back into the NHS and we have acted to prevent the back-door privatisation of GP services in Scotland."

Dawn Carmichael, associate director of finance at NHS Lothian, said private patients were treated outside normal NHS times to "prevent impact on other patients".

"The majority of privately funded patients treated in NHS Lothian are covered by employer provided or personal insurance," she said. "They are usually treated in NHS Lothian because of the complexity of the work being carried out, which often includes cancer and cardiac cases, and accessibility to treatment."