NHS crisis driving surge in UK private health admissions to more than 900,000

The private health services is expected to see over 900,000 private admissions in 2024, as the surge in demand for the private healthcare continues as the crisis in the NHS battles on.

According to an independent consultancy Broadstone, admissions using private medical insurance increased to 458,000 for the first three quarters of the year, an 11 per cent rise on the 2022 figures.

The data states that insured admissions are likely to surpass 610,000 through the financial year for 2023, which will be a record annual level.

In the same period of 2023, the data showed that there were 207,000 self-pay admissions, people who fund their own treatment, which was 0.4 per cent up from the previous year.

Broadstone predicts if the annualised rate of growth were to be continued, the total private healthcare
admissions would reach 917,000 in 2024 (up from an expected 882,000 in 2023), of which 661,000 would be private medically insured-funded.

The growth has been driven by surging corporate demand for private healthcare solutions from employers who no longer trust the NHS to secure the health of their employees.

It’s also an employee benefit that City businesses are increasingly offering when trying to recruit new staff, recruiters and insurers told City A.M. As much of the demand has been driven by increasing waiting times on the NHS.

The NHS has also been struggling under the weight of long waiting lists, which the BBC said had ‘fallen‘ to 7.58m people in January.

Meanwhile, the Resolution Foundation reported last week, that the UK is suffering from the most sustained rise in long-term sickness since the 1990s, a trend which started even before the pandemic.

From July 2019 to December 2023, the number of people inactive due to ill-health rose from 2.1m to 2.7m, with a peak of 2.8m last October.

Commenting on the data, Brett Hill, head of health and protection at Broadstone said: “A physically and mentally well workforce is critical to any business’ success.

“The crisis in the NHS means that employers are having to take matters into their own hands and invest in private healthcare solutions that give their employees access to the medical treatment they need, at the time they need it.”

He added: “We now face the realistic prospect of one million private healthcare admissions every year, primarily driven by the rise in PMI-funded treatments. It demonstrates the rapid pace at which UK businesses have pivoted towards investment in private healthcare services in recent years, and this looks set to be a trend that will only gather momentum.”