19.11.12
Private or public?
The growing scale of private provision in the NHS is captured in new data from the IFS, which shows that more and more patients are being treated by private providers.
This offers patients more choice over where to be treated: but is this improving care?
Increasing financial pressure on trusts will no doubt see the trend for greater involvement from the private sector continue. As the NHS Partners Network stated, the take-up of such services demonstrates an interest from the public.
Yet it seems as if the public sector as a whole is being bombarded with warnings of private sector involvement, and the consequences of such an approach. The answer is not as black and white as the idea that all privatisation is inherently bad, but the way in which it is used, and the extent, are factors to be carefully considered.
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