🚨 INVESTIGATION: Private clinics delivering NHS cataract surgery face investigation over claims they have artificially inflated costs for the taxpayer, performed unnecessary operations and incentivised high-street optometrists to refer patients to them: www.thetimes.com/article/245f... - ThreadSky

shaunlintern.bsky.social • 41 days ago

🚨 INVESTIGATION: Private clinics delivering NHS cataract surgery face investigation over claims they have artificially inflated costs for the taxpayer, performed unnecessary operations and incentivised high-street optometrists to refer patients to them: https://www.thetimes.com/article/245ffe68-86a8-4420-b944-cc497cca3324?shareToken=eee05f2a3eeb4bfb01f75e6b767331f4

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austenpaulh.bsky.social•40 days ago

Why am I not surprised?

shaunlintern.bsky.social•41 days ago

The NHS Counter Fraud Authority has been called in to examine billing irregularities in the private cataract market, which has grown 400% since 2019. 131 private clinics have opened since 2019, with costs for the NHS doubling over the same period: https://www.thetimes.com/article/245ffe68-86a8-4420-b944-cc497cca3324?shareToken=eee05f2a3eeb4bfb01f75e6b767331f4

4017xan.bsky.social•41 days ago

Privatised medicine is always at risk of putting profit before patients.

magdadefiant.bsky.social•40 days ago

Which is why I’ve always felt that healthcare and private profit should not be combined. Certainly not for the general population. NHS and private profit should not be combined because profits and shareholder dividends divert funding from improved care and services.

4017xan.bsky.social•40 days ago

In complete agreement. Privatising public services has not worked for transport, water, energy or the Post Office either. But the NHS is the one I feel most strongly about.

shaunlintern.bsky.social•41 days ago

The @chpithinktank.bsky.social found 5 main companies were paid a total of £536m to carry out NHS cataract surgery in 2023-24, delivering a profit of £169m.

It's latest report reveals how companies have maximised income at expense of NHS without any oversight by it

shaunlintern.bsky.social•41 days ago

Companies are supposed to manage complications but a leaked DHSC briefing said: "NHS A&E units are still reporting patients attending A&E for post-operative complications following [private] cataract surgery”. #patientsafety

Have you experienced private eye care? DM me.

shaunlintern.bsky.social•38 days ago

ICYMI at the weekend:

simmsla.bsky.social•41 days ago

Witnessed this in action with an elderly relative - home visit from high street optician placing huge pressure to go to a specific private clinic, luckily I’m a doctor and could step in and point out that everything about her history made it unsuitable. Frankly rude as we insisted on NHS care.

shaunlintern.bsky.social•41 days ago

That's interesting to hear and not surprising.

simmsla.bsky.social•41 days ago

Yes your article has really confirmed my suspicions, especially as they, for some ‘reason’, failed to record that she had elevated eye pressures on her referral letter which would have precluded private surgery; now in retrospect I can see that would have still gained them all some money.

ethelcrimble.bsky.social•41 days ago

Predictable? And what about audiology? Companies tend to do both?

magdadefiant.bsky.social•40 days ago

📌

whatdowewant.bsky.social•41 days ago

And that is why health care can never be in private hands. Being a private business will always come down to profit above all else.

greenpaul.bsky.social•41 days ago

These contracts are primarily with ICBs.

I wonder how contract scrutiny will change this autumn when ICBs become 50% smaller?

crunchy-bar.bsky.social•41 days ago

I'm shocked! Shocked! that unethical businesses would exploit public resources for personal gain. Well, not that shocked. It's as if it hasn't been done a thousand times before.

politicsphil.bsky.social•41 days ago

Wouldn't surprise me at all.

cjmccabe.bsky.social•41 days ago

Shocked I tell you….

pillenperle.bsky.social•41 days ago

Have a look at investor-dependent eye clinics in Germany. Will sound familiar

makingsawdust.bsky.social•41 days ago

All sounds entirely unsurprising

echinatum.bsky.social•36 days ago

Yet again, this should have been under close scrutiny from the very beginning. Not let it develop for years before being forced by publicity to do something.

ALL referral fees in health should be public. Whether private or NHS.

garyackers.bsky.social•40 days ago

Counterpoint : Almost eliminating waiting lists, improving quality of life for 100's of thousands every year. Reducing the risk of falls & saving the NHS a fortune? Shame the NHS couldn't do it themselves without farming it out to private hospitals.

axoplasmicgap.bsky.social•13 days ago

The more important aspect of the complaint would appear to be the incentivised referral (and performing) of unnecessary operations.

And consequentially budget blowouts.

It is important not to gloss over ethical use of public funds.

garyackers.bsky.social•40 days ago

Optometrists are paid for post surgery assessments, which saves the hospital a more expensive outpatient appointment. The fees received are the same whether the referral is to an NHS or private hospital. (certainly in the Greater Manchester region)

yrotitna.bsky.social•41 days ago

No surprises here tbh, private providers are not charities and their primary objective is to make money.

annem2024.bsky.social•41 days ago

And take too many appointments before referral to surgery, increasing risk.

catrio.bsky.social•41 days ago

Meanwhile in Scotland the SNP Scottish government invests in the NHS

The national treatment centre in Inverness is a state of the art facility focusing on eye and orthopaedic elective surgery

https://www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/your-services/in-person-services-and-locations/hospitals/national-treatment-centre-highland-inverness/#AbouttheNationalTreatmentCentre-Highland

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