The health secretary has written to the chief executives of private hospitals around the country, and ordered them to take urgent action to improve patient safety.
“Like many of my predecessors on both sides of the political divide, I believe that the independent sector can play a useful role in adding capacity, promoting innovation and offering patients choice,” states Mr Hunt in the letter.
“However, if the sector is to partner with the NHS and benefit from our world-leading medical training, we need urgent assurances that you will get your house in order on safety, as well as a commitment to take rapid action to match the NHS’s world-recognised progress on transparency.”
The letter follows a recent report into private hospitals by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which warned a third of them required improvement, following examples of poor practice and unsafe care.
The regulator also said patient safety was its biggest concern.
“The CQC report suggests that there is a real risk this progress is not being matched by equally high standards in parts of the independent sector,” the letter states.
“Given that the sector employs many NHS consultants who have benefited from NHS training, relies on the NHS as a safety net for emergency care, and holds a number of NHS contracts, a situation where it is potentially letting down patients on safety and quality is unacceptable.”
Mr Hunt has now given the sector two weeks to respond and set out what action they will take.
Speaking last month, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Ted Baker much of the care and treatment seen at independent acute hospitals is good.
“However, our inspections also identified concerns around the safety and leadership of some services, often as a result of a lack of safety checks and poor monitoring of risks,” added Professor Baker.
“Too often, safety was viewed as the responsibility of individual clinicians, rather than a corporate responsibility supported by formal governance processes. Where we found failings, we have been clear that improvements must be made, using our enforcement powers where needed to protect people.”
