Health Services: Waiting Lists
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) statutory and (b) policy rules prevent NHS funding for an elective procedure being combined with a patient contribution to meet the cost of treatment by an independent-sector provider.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Where a patient opts to pay for private care, their entitlement to services within the National Health Service remains and may not be withdrawn. However, the NHS should not subsidise private care. Therefore, it is important there is as clear a distinction as possible between private care and NHS-funded care.
Use of public money to subsidise individual payments would increase inequalities and move the NHS away from its core founding principle that access to care is based on clinical need, not an individual’s ability to pay. Current policy enables integrated care boards and NHS providers to contract with independent sector providers to deliver NHS services at agreed prices, which is key to managing public expenditure and ensuring value for money is delivered for taxpayers, while utilising spare capacity to bring the waiting list down.
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