The number of Britons turning to private healthcare has risen by a third since the pandemic. The figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network aren’t a surprise: they show that there were more ‘self-pay’ admissions for treatment in 2022 than in any other year the organisation has data for.
If long waiting lists remain, then a two-tier healthcare system will become normalised
In all, 272,000 people paid for their own treatment (rather than having it financed by insurance). The top four procedures that people either forked out for themselves or had insurance cover were cataract surgery (76,000), chemotherapy (66,000), diagnostic upper GI endoscopies (38,000) and diagnostic bowel colonoscopies (31,000), while musculoskeletal problems saw the biggest increases in patients: private hip replacements were up 76 per cent, knee replacements 64 per cent and inguinal hernia repairs rose by 56 per cent.
For self-pay patients, the increases were even steeper: hip replacements rose by 171 per cent, knee replacements by 150 per cent and inguinal hernia repair by 131 per cent.
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