NHS use of private care on increase
MORE than a quarter of the country's NHS patients treated at private facilities are in the Lothians, it has emerged.
Figures released show that, in 2008, 1115 people received independent health treatment through NHS means.
This is the highest in a decade, and a rise from last year's figure of 1089.
It makes NHS Lothian the health board most reliant on the private sector, and the Conservative Party has said it is a departure from Scottish Government pledges to reduce the reliance on independent facilities.
Shadow public health minister Jackson Carlaw said:
"People working in the private and independent sectors do a fantastic job and should not have to put up with being depicted as the bogeymen of our NHS for ideological reasons, especially at a time when they are being increasingly called upon to deliver NHS treatments."
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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