Dash to go private as number of patients opting to pay for operations soars while NHS waiting lists grow
- There were 49,700 self-funded admissions between July and September 2019
- The number of privately funded hip operations increased from 1,800 to 4,800
- Charities say delays have forced people to raid savings, get in debt or seek donations for care costs
The number of patients who have paid for private operations has soared by more than a third as NHS waiting lists climb to a record high, official figures reveal today.
Self-funded treatment has risen by 35 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels, with the number of private hip replacements alone almost tripling.
Patients spent £126million on hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery between July and September, the most recent data available reveals.
NHS hospitals cancelled swathes of operations during the pandemic so staff could prioritise coronavirus patients, sending waiting lists rocketing.
Self-funded treatment has risen by 35 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels, with the number of private hip replacements alone almost tripling
Charities say long delays have forced people in crippling pain to raid savings, plunge themselves into debt or seek donations to cover the cost of their care.
Now data from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) – shared exclusively with the Daily Mail – lays bare the devastating scale of the problem. There were 49,700 self-funded admissions between July and September 2019, rising 35 per cent to 67,100 in the same three months of 2021.
The number of privately funded hip operations increased from 1,800 to 4,800 over the same period and knee replacements are up from 1,100 to 2,500. Cataract surgery rose from 9,100 to 13,200. All figures exclude procedures covered by private medical insurance.
A hip replacement costs an average of £12,402, a knee replacement £13,103 and cataract surgery on one eye £2,574, according to analysts LaingBuisson.
The number of privately funded hip operations increased from 1,800 to 4,800 over the same period and knee replacements are up from 1,100 to 2,500
It suggests that patients spent a total of £126.3million on these three procedures alone over three months.
The number of people in England on the NHS ‘trauma and orthopaedics’ waiting list, which includes hip and knee replacements, has risen from 525,801 in September 2019 to 699,962 in September last year.
The average wait increased from 8.3 weeks to 13.7 weeks over that period.
Hospitals conducted 71,000 private operations between April and June last year, making the most recent two quarters the highest and second highest on record. Patricia Stapleton, senior policy manager at Versus Arthritis, said: ‘Increasing the NHS’s capacity to deliver more joint replacements across the UK is key to ending the years of pain that people with arthritis endure.’
Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: ‘Sadly, we have heard of patients getting into debt to pay for their operations.’
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