Can private firms really help a Labour NHS?
Welcome to Thursday’s Early Edition from i.
Ten years ago, the NHS was ranked as the best healthcare system compared to other wealthy nations, including Australia, Switzerland, Canada and France. By 2021, the same survey placed it significantly lower – at No 4 – due to its “lower performance on several domains (such as access to care and equity)”. The problems facing the NHS make regular headlines, from strikes and long waiting lists, to horrendous first person stories or warnings for patients. The ever-growing backlog is one of its most pressing issues, with the waiting list for non-urgent treatment in England still above 7.6 million. For some time, Labour has been urging the government to increase its use of the private sector to ease the burden. Back in 2022, shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting wrote: “Had a Labour government been in office this year, hundreds of thousands more patients would have been treated on the NHS in private hospitals. Those people would today have new hips, clear eyesight or reconstructed knees. They could be off NHS waiting lists, back in work and able to enjoy their lives to the full again.” But could their plans work? i has been investigating. We’ll take a look at that, after the headlines.
Today’s news, and why it matters
The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels rose to £15m a day last year – nearly double the amount previously thought, official figures suggest. The total amount spent on hotels and support for asylum seekers ballooned to £5.4bn in 2023-24 – a huge overspend on the Home Office’s £1bn budget for asylum support, resettlement and accommodation, Labour analysis of Treasury figures suggests.
The Government’s bid to reduce foreign student numbers as part of its efforts to control record legal migration numbers has succeeded and any further restrictions “would be a mistake”, the head of the universities sector has warned. Vivienne Stern, the chief executive of Universities UK, which represents 142 universities across Britain, told i that further limits on international students would inflict major damage on the economy and reduce subsidies for domestic students.
Grassroots Tories are confident they can convince Labour target voters to stick with the Conservatives at the next election, after polling revealed that 40 per cent of two key target voter groups remain undecided. Analysis of YouGov polling data by the Labour Together think-tank has identified two voter groups, labelled the Workington Man (Patriotic Left) and the Stevenage Woman (Disillusioned Suburbans), as key swing voters who are still up for grabs.
The controversial “triple lock” on the state pension looks set to continue under the next government after the Conservatives appeared to join Labour in committing to the policy in the party’s election manifesto.
The Metropolitan Police are “assessing” a report of hate speech made against MP Lee Anderson after he accused the mayor of London of being controlled by Islamists. Scotland Yard said a report was received a day after the former Tory deputy chairman made the remarks that unleashed an Islamophobia row.
Labour, the NHS and the private sector:
How it might work: While previous Labour leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband hammered home that a Labour government would protect the NHS in England from privatisation, in recent years the party has pushed a slightly different message. Last year Sir Keir Starmer said his party would use the private sector to cut waiting times, whilst also making a commitment not to privatise the health service. He said: “A number of people do go as NHS patients to the private sector, our research shows that that’s been under-used and we could do more of it and that would clear 230,000 people off the waiting list every year. But let me be clear, we are not talking about privatising the NHS, we are talking about using the private sector effectively and free at the point of use as an absolutely governing principle as we go into this review but we do need change and reform.” Wes Streeting has also said: “No one should be waiting in pain while hospital beds that could be used lie empty”. David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Provider Network, told i that more than one million cases could be treated during a Labour administration by using spare appointments, beds and operating theatres in the private sector. And another 800,000 cases could be treated in that time by 10 new “surgical hubs” that one large firm has revealed it will be ready to open.
What the industry says: One of the largest private providers of NHS services says his industry could help a new Labour government “from day one”. Read the full story here.
What criticisms do the plans face? The plans have come up for repeated criticism. In 2022, David Rowland, director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, wrote in The Guardian: “As anyone in the health service knows, private hospitals do not have any additional doctors to assist in reducing the NHS backlog”. He said: “There is only one pool of healthcare professionals in the UK and unless that pool expands significantly and quickly, a policy of pushing NHS patients to be treated in the private sector will not make any significant dent in the number of patients waiting to be treated, working class or otherwise.” Sally Gainsbury, a senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust independent health think-tank, told i that a greater shift to the private sector could “bake in a permanent reliance” on it. “That is a problem,” she said. “Because the private sector … are usually unable to treat complicated cases – which can make up around a third of cases.”
Around the world
Joe Biden “continues to be fit for duty” and his physical “identifies no new concerns” his doctor wrote after conducting an annual medical on the US president. Dr Kevin O’Connor, Mr Biden’s physician, said the president is adjusting well to a device that helps control his sleep apnoea and has experienced some hip discomfort, but also works out five times per week.
The US Supreme Court has said it will decide on whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted for alleged interference with the 2020 election. Under the court’s schedule it will start to hear the case in late April, with a decision probably no later than the end of June.
North Korea’s first spy satellite is “alive”, space experts have said, after detecting changes in its orbit that suggested Pyongyang was successfully controlling the spacecraft. However its capabilities remain unknown.
The execution of one of the longest-serving death row inmates has been called off in the US after prison officials were unable to administer the lethal injection. Thomas Eugene Creech, 73, had been convicted of five murders and was imprisoned in 1974.
Eating lots of ultra-processed food may send you to an early grave and make you depressed and anxious, a major review of evidence says. Mass-produced products such as ready meals, sugary breakfast cereal and chocolate bars are linked to 32 damaging health outcomes, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
Stand-up comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Richard Lewis has died aged 76. He was a regular on late-night talk shows through the 1980s and starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis on the ABC TV comedy Anything But Love. He made several film appearances in the 1990s, most notably in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
Watch out for…
Rochdale – where what was supposed to be a straightforward by-election has turned into something much more chaotic. As voters in the region go to the polls, here’s a brief guide for what to look out for.
Thoughts for the day
Time for millennials to stop whingeing – they’re about to be stinking rich. Ten years ago they were dubbed “lazy”. Now they’re poised to enjoy the fruits of their parents’ labour, argues Hamish McRae.
GB News is changing the Tory party in three serious ways. This is the GB Newsification of the Conservative Party, writes Katy Balls.
I’ve seen how much some Tories hate Sadiq Khan – let’s not pretend it’s not partly fuelled by racism. Would a white convert to Islam be talked about as Khan has been, asks Kate Maltby.
Our obsession with ‘missing’ Kate Middleton is becoming unhinged. We love a mystery – and we all want a glimpse behind the curtain, writes Isolde Walters.
Culture Break
Things You Should Have Done review: Very stupid – and very funny. YouTube comedian Lucia Keskin is a master of deadpan comedy in this off-the-wall sitcom, writes Isobel Lewis.
The Big Read
Inside Michael Gove’s battle with Tory rebels over renters’ rights. Campaigners have said it would be “scandalous and farcical” if the rebels’ amendments were added to the Renters’ Reform Bill.
Sport
The club whose fan ownership dream turned into a nightmare. Rochdale AFC are weeks away from going under. Once, they revelled in the utopia of fan ownership, but relegations and a hostile takeover have left a club on the brink of liquidation and desperate for investment.
Something to brighten your day
I took my kids on a solo-parent ski holiday – how hard could it be? Tim Clark took his daughters aged nine and seven, on a ski trip to France, without his wife.
