The NHS is charging patients as much as £8,500 for operations under a controversial system introduced in 2013, reports claim.
Outraged patients have slammed the prices as “immoral” and claimed “privatisation is already here”.
According to the Liverpool Echo, NHS Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust is charging just under £8,500 for revision of knee replacement surgery and £7,000 for hip replacement surgery via its My Choice programme.
The system was brought in six years ago for those denied treatment for varicose veins, but since then the Trust has expanded it to include other types of surgery.
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Other procedures on the list include hernia treatments, operations for carpal tunnel syndrome, treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding and steroid injections.
The operations are carried out at three hospitals in North West England – Halton Hospital, Warrington Hospital and the Cheshire and Merseyside Treatment Centre.
Locals took to Facebook to slam the prices, with one writing: “Privatisation is already here. Several of the operations I’ve had are listed including a knee arthroscopy I had a few years ago when I couldn’t work for months.”
Writing further, they admitted they were “horrified” at seeing treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding featured on the list, branding it “immoral”.
Another angry local called the system “barbaric” and demanded: “So no knee/hip replacements for those that genuinely need them? No D&C [dilation and curettage] for those unfortunate to miscarry?”
In the Liverpool Echo report, the Trust insisted its My Choice programme is an “affordable” self-pay service for those denied procedures that NHS commissioners consider to be of “low clinical priority”.
The group also pointed out that My Choice is not actually private service, as the procedures on its list form part of its “normal elective programme”.
The Trust explained that the system was created in 2013 and, since it was expanded, enables “affordable, convenient access” while generating “spare capacity” and “additional income” for the hospitals.
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The Trust’s chief exec, Mel Pickup, responded to the criticism by pointing out that while the body does not charge for NHS-funded procedures, not all healthcare services have NHS funding.
She said that patients who want a procedure that isn’t funded by the NHS can have it done privately, but NHS Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust is offering self-funding procedures “like the majority of hospitals”.
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