News / Government expands role of private sector to cut waiting times

The plans, developed by the Elective Recovery Taskforce, include launching 13 new community care centres (CDCs) across the UK, 8 of which will be run by the independent sector. The new CDCs are part of a government commitment, backed with  £2.3bn of funding, to open 160 centres across the country by 2025. The CDCs will increase capacity by over 742,000 additional tests per year by 2025, when all of them are fully operational.

The rollout of independent CDCs will allow centres to open in more convenient locations for many patients and shield the elective diagnostic services they offer from the impact of wider pressures faced by the NHS. The independent CDCs will run similarly to the NHS-run centres, but the independent sector will be responsible for staffing and buildings.

The government also set out a range of other measures to access independent healthcare capacity. These include commitments to use data identify where independent providers have capacity to take on more NHS patients and using more independent resources to train junior NHS staff. The expansion of training will allow junior doctors access to first-hand experience of procedures and aligns with the historic expansion of training outlined in the NHS long-term workforce plan.

This announcement comes alongside a proposed new procurement system called the provider selection regime. This approach gives NHS commissioners more flexibility to choose services by removing the requirement for competitive tendering. This also reduces barriers to integrated care and collaboration across the healthcare system.

Helen Buckingham, the director of strategy for the Nuffield Trust, welcomed the proposed collaboration: ‘There is no doubt that collaboration between the NHS and the independent health sector remains necessary if we hope to see the record number of patients waiting for treatment to come down soon.’ However, she expressed some concerns: ‘Longer-term and unintended consequences must also be considered. This scheme will need to be carefully designed to make sure that the NHS is not simply left with the most complex cases without the right staff or capacity to deal with them.’

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive for NHS Providers, warned that more might be needed: ‘This announcement must form one part of a bigger solution as the NHS bears down on waiting lists. It's vital that an increase in diagnostic capacity is matched by increased capacity across the health and care system to deliver the treatments patients need once diagnosed.’