NHS care not good enough for its own staff?

Civitas, 12 October 2009

Many large corporations in the United Kingdom offer private health ‘top-ups’ or insurance cover as a benefit to employees, and it turns out the NHS is one of them.

In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the Liberal Democrats, the NHS has released figures showing it spent £1.5m on private care for employees between 2006-07 and 2008-09.

Most UK private health insurance plans provide quicker access to elective treatments that have long wait times within the NHS. Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb commented on this, saying, “It makes sense for the NHS to want to get doctors and nurses back to work as quickly as possible but these figures will be little comfort for those people stuck on waiting lists trying to get access to treatment.”

This is a fair point; it does benefit the patient population for physicians to return to work as quickly as possible. Interestingly though, the most common treatment provided to NHS staff was not elective surgery, but counselling. Mental health care has long been known to be lacking within the NHS, and this latest FOI response emphasises the importance of mental health service improvement in future reform.

It seems unfair that many NHS staff have the ability to obtain quick and timely mental health support when others die waiting for it or do not know how to obtain treatment. Norman Lamb sums it up nicely: “If the NHS thinks it necessary to pay for private treatment for its staff to jump waiting lists, it raises serious questions about whether the current system is working as it should.”