Time to change the narrative
The reduction of waiting lists and delivery of excellent care is a shared goal, it is time for a plan that enables NHS patients to immediately access private sector resources, writes Mark Regan, CEO, Kingsbridge Private Hospital Group.
Our NHS ambulances are built by Mercedes, our drugs are manufactured by Glaxo/Pfizer and dispensed by Medicare and Boots. The very buildings that make up the NHS estate in Northern Ireland are built by Farrans and Lagan, so why does the narrative “NHS good, private bad” still exist locally?
In England almost 60 per cent of all cataract surgery is delivered by private hospitals and as a result, less than 1 per cent of the population wait a year or more. In Northern Ireland, more than 14 per cent of patients wait 12 months or more for treatment – 20 times worse than England. Yet, we are still so opposed to embracing a partnership with the private sector that worked so well during the Covid pandemic.
It is time to change the narrative of NHS versus private healthcare. We both share the same end goal – to reduce waiting lists while delivering excellent, timely, and effective diagnosis and treatment for patients.
In times of crisis, we pull together. Why should it be any different when it comes to tackling the ever-increasing waiting lists we face in Northern Ireland? Our colleagues in the NHS face an uphill battle with the trajectory getting steeper by the day and the independent sector (IS) can help.
I am not proposing anything radical. In fact, Kingsbridge Healthcare Group has been the principal partner to the public sector NHS/HSC since 2005, accounting for the majority of outsourced procedures during that period. We currently have over 100 live contracts, in all specialties, with the HSC, meaning that should funding become available, patients can be outsourced within days to Kingsbridge, and as per NHS core principles, it would be free at the point of delivery to the patient.
Working in partnership with the NHS, Kingsbridge delivered more than 15 per cent of all surgery that took place in Northern Ireland last year.
During the Covid pandemic, we facilitated trusts by providing all of the main hospital beds and theatres on a not-for-profit, cost recovery basis to perform lifesaving operations for cancer patients whilst Belfast City Hospital was a nightingale hospital.
But there is an opportunity and a need to do more. We will only start to see any improvement when we move past the ‘private healthcare bad guys’ argument and recognise that efficient joint use of resources and capacity, in both the NHS and private healthcare providers is the only way forward.
The statistics speak for themselves. In Northern Ireland, 14 per cent of the total population are waiting more than a year for a consultation or surgery. To put that figure in perspective, this is 20 times higher than in England, where only 5 per cent are on waiting lists for this period of time.
In relation to cancer and specifically areas such as bowel, oesophageal, and stomach cancer, we know that 70 to 80 per cent of patients in Northern Ireland do not start treatment within two months of an urgent referral from a GP.
Patients deserve better, and solutions only come with investment. Over the last two decades we have expanded our capacity as well as clinical capabilities and facilities through acquisition, capital expenditure, and new site development.
Pioneers
We pride ourselves on being pioneers bringing a number of firsts to Northern Ireland including the first private GP practice in 2008, a dedicated training academy for healthcare professionals including surgeons, new surgical techniques such as the Mako robotic surgery for hips and knee surgeries, and the very first private ICU opening at Kingsbridge in Belfast – that would allow us to assist the NHS in completing complex cardiac surgery.
Our team saw the opportunities in medical tourism and since 2015, under the Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme, we have treated over 61,222 cross border patients from the Republic.
In 2021, the HSCB, now the SPPG agreed that there was a need for a regionally accessible endoscopy centre. Despite the inability to secure any contracts from the public sector, Kingsbridge invested in a Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at the Kings Hall Complex. We now have the capacity to offer endoscopy to over 1,500 patients every month with urgent referrals able to access screening within seven days of referral from their GP.
These innovations should increasingly be made available to NHS patients, free at the point of delivery. The question is, how do we make this a reality?
The recent UK Autumn Budget saw an unexpected windfall of an extra £130 million for the Stormont Executive to spend on public services over the next two years with just under £100 million available for spending in the 2024/25 financial year.
While we all recognise the competing needs across the board, health should be a priority for the wellbeing of our local population if we are to meet the targets for increased productivity, and getting people back into work to secure our future economic growth and prosperity as outlined in the draft Programme for Government.
I would encourage our political leaders to seriously consider a plan of action that would allocate additional funding to health in a way that would allow NHS patients to immediately access private sector resources, while the public sector takes the time to build its own capacity in the longer term. This move would effectively forge a path where, in partnership we can collectively make some serious headway in reducing waiting lists and delivering tangible benefits to the people of Northern Ireland.
The clock is ticking and the time for decisions is now. Let’s see some affirmative action that will allow us to move into 2025 with some much-needed good news and a positive plan for making a real impact.
Mark Regan
CEO Kingsbridge Healthcare Group
reganm@kingsbridgehealthcaregroup.com
T: 028 9066 7878
W: www.kingsbridgeprivatehospital.com
