University Hospitals Plymouth Trust agrees deal with a private hospital

Derriford Hospital, part of University Hospitals Plymouth Trust has agreed a deal with a private hospital which will see NHS consultants and other staff carrying out non-urgent orthopaedic surgery in that facility – around 200 cases a month and lasting 18 months – the first of its kind between the public and private sectors.

The NHS has increasingly contracted with the private sector to meet demand. Numerous commentators fear this has created additional and unnecessary fragmentation, complexity, workload and cost.

The Plymouth Trust initiative does evidence the impact of rapidly increased demand during the winter months, as well as the ‘mixed economy’ that’s always existed in our health system, as we reference at:

https://www.healthmutual.org/faqs/

The aim of Health Mutual is to expand our publicly owned and managed health system, using this vehicle to meet some of the rising demand, so that the NHS can reduce its growing reliance on this activity and redirect resources solely to delivering treatment.