Issues of Safety and Compensation in Private Healthcare
The BBC's Panorama programme has recently highlighted issues of safety in private healthcare, following the case of surgeon Ian Paterson, convicted of unlawfully wounding private patients in his care.
The investigation by Darragh MacIntyre raised a number of issues that merit further thought.
Working in the patients' best interests?
Whilst it was observed that the vast majority of surgeons working in the private sector are dedicated professionals, focused on the needs of their patients, there was an acknowledgement that the nature of private healthcare opened up the possibility that financial gain might influence decision-making. It raises the question of whether the patients' best interests are always at the heart of a medical treatment decision or whether the profit to be gained by one procedure over another might influence some physicians.
Ian Paterson was quoted as the most recent and significant example of this possibility when he advised women to have expensive, private breast surgery which subsequently turned out either to be inappropriate or entirely unnecessary.
Where's the regulation?
It was additionally observed that there is less regulation and oversight of private hospitals than there is of NHS hospitals. As noted by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Professor Derek Alderson, there is less transparency due to the fact that data on deaths and serious incidents in private hospitals is less comprehensively reported than it would be in the NHS.
In an article on the RCS website, he further commented that although 'there have been a large number of initiatives in the NHS to improve patient safety, the same focus from government and healthcare leaders has not happened in the private sector.'
The problem with this situation is that, if serious incidents are not reported, how can there be a process of regulation, evaluation and learning?
Safety in emergencies
Another issue raised was the ability of private hospitals to respond to emergency situations when a problem arises, with the suggestion that private healthcare is less equipped to deal with scenarios that require an immediate transfer to intensive care support.
Professor Alderson acknowledged that "we cannot give private patients the same level of assurance that they are every bit as safe in the private sector as they are in NHS hospitals."
Claiming compensation
Unfortunately, the programme also highlighted the fact that, when healthcare goes wrong, it may be much harder for patients to claim compensation from private consultants. On the other hand, all patients undergoing procedures in the NHS are covered by medical insurance.
They observed that private hospitals are under no obligation to compensate patients who have suffered at the hands of freelance consultants.
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