NHS Patients Going Private: What Are the Risks?

2024-04-08 · 29 min

Panorama investigates a private hospital chain being used to help clear the NHS waiting list. With more than six million people in England alone waiting for an operation on the NHS, Monika Plaha investigates the safety record of one of the UK's biggest private healthcare providers. Private hospitals can offer a quick and safe solution to patients who may be in pain and facing long NHS waits, but what happens if things go wrong? Most private hospitals lack intensive care facilities and rely on the NHS if patients develop complications. We look at the warnings received by one hospital where two patients died after waiting for transfer, only for a third person to die after a 14-hour wait to get them to NHS emergency facilities just one mile down the road.