A year after the prime minister’s call to work with the private sector to cut waiting lists, the Independent Healthcare Providers Network argues that it can tackle community waiting times.
The Independent Healthcare Providers Network, the representative body for independent sector healthcare providers, has called for the private sector have a greater role in cutting NHS community waiting times.
NHS community waiting lists have increased by 23% since 2022, and the establishment of a new target for 80% of community patients to receive treatment within 18 weeks appears a challenge.
“Independent health care providers working at scale are perfectly placed to apply their national-level understanding of what works when delivering services to local needs, supporting consistency of provision and improving patient outcomes and experiences,” a new report from the body says.
The report comes a year after prime minister Keir Starmer struck an agreement with the independent sector as part of plans to end the hospital waiting list backlog.
“When the waiting lists have ballooned to 7.5 million, we will not let ideology or old ways of doing things stand in the way of getting people’s lives back on track,” he said last January.
The IHPN’s new report argues that independent providers who deliver community care “at scale” have a vital contribution to make in bringing much-needed capacity and capability to local communities and achieve the NHS’s vision for “neighbourhood health”.
High-quality care
The industry body points out its members have a national footprint, with some providers delivering care covering around 10% of the population nationally. This means that they can use data and insight to understand and apply “what works” in pathway design across multiple contracts and areas.
They have the financial backing to invest in new and improved services, with access to private capital that public providers simply don’t have in the current fiscal climate.
IHPN members generally have centralised back-office functions, systems, processes, and skills which provide greater resilience and efficiency, which would be impossible for smaller local providers to achieve.
“We cannot fix the NHS by focusing solely on elective care while community services remain in a blind spot. That approach is counter-productive and not in patients’ interests,” said IHPN’s director of policy Danielle Henry.
With NHS community services under huge strain and patients waiting far too long for much-needed care and support, significant capacity and resources will need to be brought in.
“Independent healthcare providers are already using their size and reach to deliver precisely the kind of accessible high-quality care to NHS patients that new Neighbourhood Health Services are seeking to achieve,” she added.
