Could the private sector help fix the NHS backlog?

The Conservative plan to tackle the NHS backlog has, so far, run roughly along the lines of the New Labour approach to the hefty waiting lists in the health service at the turn of the century. More money, more flexibility when using the private sector and greater ‘patient choice’ (which in this context translates as patients who’ve been waiting a very long time being able to get treatment in another part of the country where waiting lists aren’t quite so bad). So far, the main difference is that ministers are just shouting a bit less at hospitals (though GPs might argue they are bearing the brunt this time instead) than the Labour government did.

But as I say in the i paper this week, some Conservatives are urging a markedly different approach where those who can afford to opt out of the NHS and get treatment in the private sector are rewarded through things like more sympathetic tax treatment for private medical insurance and so on.