Healthcare in England - Private-sector Medical Care

Private-sector Medical Care

England has a private sector in health care providing a lesser set of treatments than those obtainable from the NHS. Private health care is sometimes funded by employers through medical insurance as part of a benefits package to employees though it is mostly the larger companies that do. Insurers also market policies directly to the public. Most private care is for specialist referrals with most people retaining their NHS GP as point of first contact.

The private sector now does some subcontracting work for the NHS. Thus an NHS patient can be treated in the private sector as an NHS patient if the Health Services has subcontracted work to the hospital. This development is still in its infancy and quite rare.

Some private hospitals are business enterprises and some are non-profit-making trusts. Some hospital groups provide insurance plans (e.g. Bupa) and some insurance companies have deals with particular private hospital groups. Some private sector patients can be treated in NHS hospitals in which case the patient or his/her insurance company is billed.