Will private healthcare benefit from NHS cuts?

The talk of cuts in the NHS is naturally worrying for some - there are bound to be a few bureaucrats concerned about their future - but also good news for others, eg companies who carry out healthcare in the private sector.

While private healthcare in the UK is set to grow in the coming years, it isn't necessarily at the expense of the NHS. In a lot of cases private healthcare actually reduces the burden on the NHS, for instance if I went private for a minor operation it would be the NHS who would benefit as I would still have paid my taxes towards the NHS.

So, it's not as simple as one set of professionals taking work off another. But as the new NHS takes shape durung the coming years, a clearer picture will emerge of what the balance of services is liekly to be.

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NHS - no crystal ball as yet

Some worried noises coming from Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, over at The Mirror.

It's difficult to separate the rehtorical scariness from the genuine concern in this one, but the gist of Burnham's article seems to be that under Cameron, the NHS is facing its biggest threat in all its 62 years.

Here at Your private Healthcare Insurance Blog, we definitely agree that it looks as if the NHS is heading for its biggest period of change. The question is whether this change will be all bad or not.

With the deficit the government's priority, the NHS will surely not be allowed to spend as much as it used to. But not all the money it spent went on patients anyway. The NHS employs a lot of desk people and spends (I would imagine) a lot of money on things that large organisations spend money on - consultancy work (note: business consultancy work, I mean, not medical consultants), training courses, inhouse media etc.

But Burnham is right to subject the actions of the new government to scrutiny - that is his job. The question is whether and to what extent Cameron's NHS will improve health care or just change the nature of its management and provision. It's doubtful that the changes will be painless however. Watch this space...

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