The number of medical tourists visiting the UK for private healthcare, including cancer therapies, has soared by a whopping 800 per cent in less than a decade, new data shows.
Figures from the Private Health Information Network (PHIN), a government-backed body that tracks paid-for treatments in the UK, showed non-UK patients accounted for 10,640 hospital admissions last year.
A fifth of them received expensive treatment at an NHS-run facility, a controversial practice that critics say diverts much-needed resources from the health service.
This is despite the latest NHS data showing that almost 6.4 million patients are stuck on waiting lists for elective care in England alone.
Despite booming business in private wards, NHS doctors, who are “stretched to the limit”, are said to be reducing their working hours to “protect their wellbeing”.
The vast majority of foreign private patients registered since 2016 (more than 15,000) came from wealthy countries in the Arabian Peninsula, such as Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They were followed by Ireland (1,565) and Nigeria (565).
The total number of more than 10,000 for 2023 represents a 32 percent increase on last year, but a colossal 798 percent increase on the 1,185 patients registered in 2016.
Growth specifically within so-called NHS Private Patient Units (PPUs) was even greater in 2023, up 52 per cent year-on-year.
PPUs are a controversial NHS practice, with an estimated one in every 100 NHS beds reserved for private patients.
Foreigners seeking private healthcare in the UK were more likely to undergo chemotherapy for cancer or an endoscopy, where a small flexible camera is inserted into the digestive system to help diagnose a range of diseases.
Critics have said PPUs exacerbate healthcare inequalities in the UK and further worsen delays faced by NHS patients.
Many of the doctors who offer these private treatments also work for the NHS, meaning that working in PPU directly reduces the number of hours they can devote to public patients.
And some trusts also use their public services to advertise their private business, boasting that if things go wrong during a procedure, there is taxpayer-funded specialist and emergency care available directly, unlike in some private hospitals.
NHS trusts that have launched PPUs have defended these schemes by arguing that they allow them to reinvest profits made from private treatment into public services.
But NHS trusts do not actually publish profit data, only revenue, of which the latest publicly available data shows they made just under £600m in a year.
However, this varies. Research by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest shows that at least one palliative care unit in a trust has lost £18m since it opened.
And not all patients end up paying: NHS trusts have written off almost £2m in unpaid bills from those treated on their PPU in some years.
Critics also argue that much of the profits made from the PPU appear to be reinvested in expanding the trust’s private healthcare business rather than its public operations.
Another common defence of PPUs is that they free up capacity within the NHS by allowing patients with means to access an alternative care system, in theory reducing waiting lists.
But critics argue that such a defence falls apart when it comes to PPUs importing tens of thousands of patients from abroad who do not rely on the NHS.
This comes as new NHS data shows the waiting list for routine health service treatments in England has increased for a third month running.
It is estimated that at the end of June there were 7.62 million treatments pending, corresponding to 6.39 million patients.
This represents an increase from the 7.60 million treatments and 6.37 million patients registered at the end of May.
The figures are still below the record peak of 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients registered in September 2023, but the total has been increasing since April.
In February 2020, the last full month before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the list stood at 4.57 million.
From February 2024, treatments provided by community services are no longer included in the data, meaning the total number of people waiting for treatment in England is likely to be higher than the latest figures.
Cancer treatment figures, including chemotherapy such as that received by foreigners in private care centres in the UK, also continue to meet targets.
In June, the proportion of patients who waited no more than 62 days from being referred urgently for a suspected cancer or being changed to a different specialty until receiving the first definitive cancer treatment was 67.4%, compared with 65.8% in May. The target is 85%.
Meanwhile, the UK’s medical regulator has warned that doctors are at “breaking point” and many are being forced to cut back on hours to “protect their wellbeing”.
The General Medical Council (GMC) said doctors are “taking matters into their own hands” by cutting hours and refusing additional work.
This could scupper Labour’s plan to increase night and weekend working to try to reduce the backlog in NHS care.
The GMC warned ‘Workloads are high and job satisfaction is low.’
A survey by the regulator found that 41 percent of doctors had refused to take on additional work, up from 23 percent in 2021.
Of those who refused to work extra hours, almost one in five did so because of “pressure on workload and capacity.” This is up from 8 percent of physicians who cited this reason in 2021.
The GMC report said: For individual doctors, this is often the only responsible way to deliver safe care, but such measures further reduce health service capacity.
In the foreword to the report, GMC chief executive and registrar Charlie Massey and GMC chair Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen wrote: “The UK’s health services are in a critical state and those who work in them are on the brink of collapse.”
Figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN), a government-backed body that tracks private healthcare in the UK, showed 10,640 admissions of non-UK patients in 2023. Of these, 2,310 were for private care within the NHS itself, a controversial practice that critics say drains much-needed resources from the health service.
The vast majority of foreign private patients registered since 2016 (more than 15,000) came from wealthy countries in the Arabian Peninsula, such as Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They were followed by Ireland (1,565) and Nigeria (565).
‘These data show that more doctors are now taking matters into their own hands, not only to protect their own health and well-being, but also that of their patients.
‘For many, this will often be the only responsible way to provide safe care, but this action carries risks.
We must be clear that it is essential for doctors to protect their well-being, but they should not feel that their only option is to reduce their working hours.
‘This presents challenges in capacity planning, adding further pressure to already overstretched services.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “We have been working to improve the training and working lives of doctors and we know more work needs to be done, particularly in recognising the risk of burnout.
‘As part of the NHS’s long-term workforce plan, we are taking steps to further improve working conditions, including increasing choice and flexibility in training and reducing duplicate inductions so doctors can spend less time on administration and more time treating patients.
“We are also strengthening occupational health services and reviewing our mental health and treatment provision for staff to ensure everyone working in the NHS has the right support.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘The NHS is broken and the Secretary of State has been clear that he wants to work with clinicians to get it back on its feet so it works for patients and staff.
‘NHS England is working to address training bottlenecks so the health service has enough staff for the future and we will recruit more than 1,000 newly qualified GPs by the end of the year to reduce the burden on general practice.’
PHIN chief executive Dr Ian Gargan said of the publication of its data: ‘We work with over 650 private hospitals in the UK, including NHS PPUs, and the data they send us appears to show that patients, particularly those in the Middle East, increasingly value the private healthcare sector in the UK.
“More and more are arriving every year, which will lead us to a record number in 2023.”
‘As well as ensuring these patients receive the care they need, the growing number of international patients allows private providers to maximise capacity and is a boost to the UK economy.’