The number of Scottish NHS patients treated in private hospitals reached a five-year high last year with two boards – NHS Grampian and NHS Lothian – dominating the figures.

Data collected by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and published by the Scottish government shows 7,256 people were treated as inpatients and day patients in non-NHS hospitals in 2023-24, an increase of over 600 from the previous year.

Of these, 2,193 were sent by NHS Grampian and 2,160 by NHS Lothian.

By contrast, Scotland’s largest NHS board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, paid for 708 people to be treated in non-NHS hospitals.

The numbers included those treated in hospices and nursing homes as well as private hospitals.

For outpatient appointments, the numbers being sent by their NHS boards to independent facilities was 3,713 – again higher in 2023-24 than in the previous four years and an increase of 1,018 on the previous year.

Of these, 2,172 – more than 58% of the total number – were people living in Lothian.

The data was published in a written answer by Health Secretary Neil Gray to a question by North-East Scotland MSP Maurice Golden.

NHS boards in Scotland are allowed to refer patients to private healthcare facilities under certain circumstances.

The option was used to its greatest extent in 2020-21, with non-NHS providers given NHS contracts worth around £40m in the first year of the pandemic.

Under a national initiative to divert planned cases away from NHS hospitals at the height of COVID 19, more than 4,000 surgical procedures and 6,000 outpatient appointments were undertaken as part of a contract with four independent hospitals.  

These initiatives have now come to an end.

The numbers being referred to private hospitals now is a small fraction of the one in eight Scots treated by the NHS each year.

PHS says 700,000 Scottish residents , one in eight of the population, were admitted to hospital in 2023-24.Of these, three out of ten patients had more than one admission contributing to just over 1.1 million admissions last year.

Nearly one million Scottish residents visited an outpatient department in 2023-24 for a first appointment.

However, the numbers do not capture those people who have chosen to pay for their own care rather than wait for NHS treatment.

 

Read more: BMA: Scotland ‘sleepwalking’ into private healthcare; NHS buys private hospital for new treatment centre; Surge in Scots paying for private surgery