Private hospitals treated just eight Covid patients a day, report says

Private hospitals treated just eight Covid patients a day during the pandemic despite getting billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash, report says

  • Treasury booked the capacity of 7,956 beds in England’s 187 private hospitals
  • The move was intended to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed amid Covid
  • But think-tank says private hospitals treated no Covid patients at all on 39 per cent of days between March 2020 and March this year

Private hospitals treated just eight Covid patients a day during the pandemic despite receiving billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash, according to a report.

The Treasury agreed in March last year to book the entire capacity of 7,956 beds in England’s 187 private hospitals along with almost 20,000 staff.

The move, believed to have cost around £400million a month, was intended to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed.

But the Centre for Health and the Public Interest think-tank says private hospitals treated no Covid patients at all on 39 per cent of days between March 2020 and March this year.

The Treasury agreed in March last year to book the entire capacity of 7,956 beds in England’s 187 private hospitals along with almost 20,000 staff (file photo)

The move, believed to have cost around £400million a month, was intended to prevent the NHS (pictured, Health Secretary Sajid Javid) from being overwhelmed

And on a further 20 per cent of days they cared for only one.

Of the 3.6million days that Covid patients occupied hospital beds over those 13 months, only 3,000 were in private hospitals – just 0.08 of the total.

It means, on average, there were 8.1 Covid patients in private hospitals on any given day, compared with 9,977 in NHS beds.

Meanwhile, private hospitals completed only two million NHS-funded planned procedures during the first year of the pandemic – down 43 per cent on the previous year. 

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