Big tax increases necessary to preserve NHS, says boss of £70m private hospital

The boss of the newly-opened £70m Spire Manchester Hospital in Didsbury says demand for private healthcare facilities will continue increasing unless “taxation is increased tremendously” to pay for the NHS.

Hospital director Chris Chadwick was speaking in the wake of last Monday’s opening of the new facility, which boasts a total of 650 staff and six operating theatres equipped with the latest state-of-the-art imaging and air purification equipment.

Spire runs a total of 38 private hospitals across the country. The relocation of the Manchester hospital from Whalley Range has been financed by Spire Healthcare plc, the only publicly quoted company of its type in the UK.

“The majority of patients we treat are people who are privately insured, but the biggest growing demand is from people who are choosing to self pay for their own treatment,” he said.

“We are here for private individuals who don’t want to wait to be treated on the NHS. Interestingly, that has expanded because people who might had had private health insurance when they were working, but have decided to insure themselves.”

Chadwick said there is “definitely a threshold” as to how long people are prepared to wait for treatment on the NHS.

“Ten years ago when the NHS brought their maximum 18-week target out, they got it down in certain places to 10 weeks. Then, demand for private health care wasn’t great.

“Now everyone’s publicly saying that there are so many people having to wait six months, people are saying it’s unacceptable, particularly people who’re in work.

“My view is that as UK plc, we can’t afford the NHS in it current guise unless taxation is increased tremendously. It can continue if the Government decides that more taxation is going to go on the population to fund it.

“Someone has to balance the books – it’s as simple as that. The unfortunate thing is that there are no massive technological advances in the other services which require large scale public funding – the police and fire services.

“But technological changes take place in the health service and they cost money. When that technology is around equipment or drugs or consumables, that’s where the cost is.

“Medical inflation always runs ahead of routine inflation and it always has. So by definition you need to put a greater proportion of resource into the health service every single year to stand still.

“Spire takes the burden away from the NHS. The more people use their private health insurance or choose to pay for their treatment, it’s one less person who is reliant on the NHS.”