§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) in each of the last five years, what has been the cost of publicly funded treatments for patients in(a) United Kingdom private hospitals and (b) overseas hospitals; [7220]
(2) how many patients have been treated in private hospitals, funded by the NHS, in each of the last five years. [7219]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 15 October 2001]: The table sets out the total amount of national health service funds spent by health authorities in England outside the NHS. These figures include expenditure on treatment for NHS patients in private hospitals, local authorities and the voluntary sector.
£ billion Year Spend 1996–97 0.87 1997–98 1.08 1998–99 1.25 1999–2000 1.41 2000–01 1.47 Source:
Department of Health Common Information Core, Out-turn
United Kingdom residents are personally liable for costs of hospital and other medical treatment overseas unless there are reciprocal health agreements under which the costs are assumed by Governments. Since many of these agreements are on a cost-waiver basis, information on the cost of patients treated in overseas hospitals is not available.
A meaningful time series of data on the number of NHS patients treated in private hospitals is not available