Long NHS waiting times appear to be pushing people into paying thousands of pounds for private treatment, with 69,000 self-funded treatments in the UK in the final three months of last year, reports BBC News. This figure is a 39% rise on the same period before the pandemic.
The figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) which do not include those who have private insurance – instead they are the people paying the full cost of treatment themselves, leaving them liable for huge bills.
BBC News reports the numbers paying for care topped 250,000 last year, with common operations like hip and knee replacements costing up to £15,000.
Read more:
- BBC News: NHS waits force patients to pay for private ops, 22 July 2022.
- PHIN: https://www.phin.org.uk