NHS staff using private healthcare system

Doctor

While US President Barack Obama's proposed healthcare reform has been all over the news recently, the UK's National Health Services (NHS) isn't without its own issues. And now, research from political party the Liberal Democrats, has found that in the last three years alone the NHS has spent GBP£1.5 million on private healthcare treatments for its own staff.

The figures suggest that much of the spend has been on providing access to counselling services, including employee assistance programmes. The Department of Health said decisions on sending staff to private healthcare were taken locally.

Commenting on the findings, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said: "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. If the NHS thinks it necessary to pay for private treatment for its staff to jump waiting lists then it raises serious questions about whether the current system is working as it should."

A spokeswomen for the Patients Association, which represents NHS patients said, "I am really am surprised. If the NHS's own staff are not using the service then it is sending out mixed messages to patients who often don't have the choice."

If the NHS is not deemed good enough for its own staff, then why should the general public be using it? Surely just because people work for the trust, it shouldn't provide them with more choices, especially as other people could technically be more deserving of available treatments. As it stands, the NHS has already faced a lot of criticism over the last few years, and this won't do anything to ease people's concerns.

In fact, it was only last week that the NHS was in the questioned over latest figures showing that, over a six-month period more than 5700 patients in England died or suffered serious harm due to procedural errors.

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