Ramsay Health Care UK’s support for the NHS over the last 12 months is featured in a new national report which looks at the historic partnership between the NHS and the independent hospital sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One year ago this week, virtually all independent hospital capacity was made available to the NHS “at cost” - helping ensure vital NHS treatment could continue during the pandemic and that the health service had enough capacity to deal with any surges in the virus.
Since then, over 3 million NHS procedures have been delivered in England through this partnership - making a major contribution in ensuring that NHS operations, chemotherapy sessions, diagnostic tests and consultations continued to be provided to NHS patients, free at the point of use. This partnership has also played a key role in ensuring the NHS did not become a “COVID only service”, enabling over 160,000 life-saving NHS cancer and cardiology treatments to be delivered. This treatment is in addition to care delivered to large numbers of privately-funded patients.
Marking the one-year anniversary of the NHS and independent hospitals partnership, the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) have launched a new report shining a light on what has been achieved over the last 12 months, with a specific focus on what independent hospital sector support has meant to both patients and the NHS.
While the national partnership agreement will conclude at the end of March, Ramsay remains committed to supporting the COVID-19 recovery, and will continue to play a key role working with local NHS partners to deal with the significant backlog of delayed care.
David Hare, Chief Executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) said: “Over the past year, independent sector hospitals – including Ramsay Health Care UK - have been working shoulder-to-shoulder with the NHS and have made a significant contribution in ensuring vital NHS care, including 160,000 cancer and cardiology treatments, could continue during the pandemic. On the one-year anniversary of this historic partnership, I’m delighted to be launching this report showcasing just some of the many inspiring local partnerships between independent and NHS providers during what has undoubtedly been the toughest periods in the health service’s history. Independent providers - including Ramsay Health Care UK - remain committed to supporting the NHS as part of the post-covid recovery and this partnership will continue to evolve in the months and years ahead with a renewed focus on clearing the significant backlog of NHS operations, whilst also ensuring private patients can access the care they need.”
Read the full report here.