Bupa 'harming NHS' by offering patients “bribes” of £2k to use public services instead of private hospitals

Britain's biggest medical insurer has been accused of harming the NHS by offering patients “bribes” of £2,000 to use public services instead of private hospitals.

Bupa is offering the cash handouts to customers who agree to undergo cancer, heart and gynaecological ops on the NHS, we can reveal.

A letter from the private health giant to a male cardiac patient explains: “The cash payment takes the place of private treatment funding.

“If you are admitted to hospital under the NHS as an in-patient for any of the above procedures, we will pay you a fixed sum amount.”

The cash payments have been condemned as “outrageous” and “disgusting” by doctors.

And Labour demanded the Government immediately launch an investigation into the impact of the “bribes” on the NHS .

Health campaigners raised concerns the “dumping” of patients onto the NHS would trigger “significant problems” in an “already over-stretched” health service.

The official letter from Bupa detailing the scheme is headlined: “Giving our members improved choice.”

The patient, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was “shocked” to be encouraged to seek treatment on the NHS in exchange for money.

The letter said: “The payment you will receive depends on the cardiac treatment you need.

"Payments usually range from between £500 to £2,000.”

Operations can cost fives times more than the cash payments offered by Bupa. One procedure patients can pocket £2,000 for having on the NHS is for a pacemaker to be fitted.

Private hospitals charge a minimum of £10,000 for this procedure.

Doctors, health campaigners and MPs said it was “scandalous” that Bupa was profiting by pushing patients requiring “complex” operations on to the NHS.

The global private health firm has three million customers in the UK.

It has struggled in recent years as cash-strapped consumers cancelled their private healthcare insurance.

But its latest accounts reveal business is booming.

It raked in a staggering £2.57billion in revenue last year, and pocketed £139million in profit - up 26% on 2012.

Consultant oncologist Dr Clive Peedell, co-leader of the National Health Action party, accused Bupa of “cashing in on the NHS”.

He said: “It’s disgusting that a leading private healthcare company is paying patients to use the NHS.

“This is an outrageous example of how the private healthcare sector is happy to take patients’ money but then has to turn to the NHS when it realises it can’t afford to meet the high cost of treating patients privately.

“This underlines yet again that private healthcare is all about the money.”

Dr Peedell added: “It looks like Bupa have calculated that it’s cheaper for them to pay patients to use the NHS than fork out themselves for private treatment which would cost them thousands of pounds.

"They are effectively cashing in on the NHS.”

Campaigner John Lister, of pressure group Health Emergency, added: “It defies belief. It’s scandalous.

“This is yet another way in which private healthcare firms are milking the NHS.

“The operations they are offering to pay people to have on the NHS are exactly the ones they are least equipped to deal with.

Money: Labour called for a probe into the impact on the NHS

"They simply don’t have the staff or the expertise to provide them.

“They have realised these operations are the most expensive to provide and are now dumping these patients on the NHS.

“ NHS hospitals are already struggling to cope now with less staff and fewer resources.

"The burden of extra patients needing complex operations will cause significant problems for an already over-stretched NHS.”

NHS campaigner Dr Louise Irvine, a GP in Lewisham, South East London, also blasted the cash handouts.

She said: “The NHS is effectively subsidising the private sector because these private health insurers can charge a smaller premium in the knowledge that the NHS is there to deal with anything complex and costly that crops up.

After the Daily Mirror highlighted the scandal, Labour called on ministers to launch a probe into how widespread the payments are and their impact on the NHS.

Labour shadow health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “To many people these payments will feel like bribes.

“Private companies are increasingly cherry picking patients and treatments they consider lucrative, leaving the NHS to pick up the bill for the most difficult services.

“Ministers must investigate what extra pressure this practice will add.”

Bupa denied that the cash offers were bribes, and insisted it was simply “offering customers choice”.

A Bupa spokeswoman said: “This is about offering customers choice - we want customers to be able to choose where they have treatment.

"For some people their condition can cause financial pressure, particularly if long term treatment is required.

“This is one way we can offer some practical help with costs such as childcare, travel to and from hospital or the need to pay for extra help around the home.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/bupa-harming-nhs-offering-patients-3390254#ixzz2yMC23QHv
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook


    ....The Tories want us to go to the American model, like my mate said a few months ago, you have taken on, and consuming, this dogmire of American logic...for decades..etc..Now you reap the awards.  

We need a more socialist model in this country imo...And we need to stay in the EU.

National treaure: The NHS

With very little fanfare, NHS Direct closed on March 31. It offered a first class service for years – its ­qualified nurses giving medical ­reassurance to parents of sick ­children, pensioners and other patients.

It helped my grandchildren and even managed to save my life by correctly diagnosing that I was in the early stages of pneumonia and had kidney stones.

In one year alone NHS Direct prevented 1.5million inappropriate visits to A&E and 1.9million ­unnecessary GP consultations, saving the NHS £213million.

But it had its contract broken up by the Coalition into 46 tenders and sold to the cheapest providers for the far inferior 111 service.

They included private healthcare companies who replaced nurses with call handlers. As a result, attendances at A&E went up by 53 per cent and ambulance call-outs increased, trebling in some areas.

NHS Direct only won 11 of the tenders. It could not afford to run the service on such a small scale – that’s why it had to shut on Monday.

The same day Lord Warner, a former Labour health minister, wrote in a report for a right-of-centre think-tank with close links to the Tories that the NHS should charge people a £10 monthly membership and £20 a night to stay in hospital.

It already does charge people – it’s called National Insurance and general taxation.

The professed Labour supporter’s call, in his pamphlet and a newspaper article, is in direct opposition to the principle of treatment based on need, not the ability to pay.

He rules out further taxation to fund the £30billion gap in funds for the NHS. Perhaps he could consider, for a similar amount of our money, scrapping future spending on the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Lord Warner, a career civil servant, was actively involved in advising private healthcare firms who have lucrative contracts in the NHS.

Last year he was the only Labour peer to vote with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on proposed NHS regulations to allow companies to bid for almost all health services.

When he was called before a ­parliamentary select committee to discuss his lobbying as a peer for private ­healthcare, he said: “The point I’m trying to make is that we do not have constituents. There is not a group of people who have voted for us... We are not elected to represent a particular geographical area and we are not paid a salary.”

But he was nominated by Labour to be one of its peers.

Warner admitted he does not ­represent the people. Instead he ­speaks up for the private healthcare industry through his private ­consultancy firm Sage Advice Ltd.

Labour created the NHS – against ardent opposition from the Tories – to make healthcare free at the point of delivery to anyone who needs it, not just those who can afford it.

I fear the constant dismantling of the NHS by the ConDem coalition.

But I also worry about people like Warner who use the Labour Red Flag as a flag of convenience to peddle the right’s privatisation agenda.

I will fight tooth and nail with every last breath in my body to make sure his heartless and repugnant views are never made policy.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-charge-fee-over-dead-3380155#ixzz2yMFUbo8H
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook


    

I fear the constant dismantling of the NHS by the ConDem coalition.

And let us never forget, that the Liberals are contrite, in all of this as well.

Fuck them, nasty RW turncoats, don't jump in bed with them, if Labour falls short of an overall majority at the next election.

IMO....We should look towards the smaller parties to make up the majority, and to go with the Liberals, would be a very big mistake indeed.

...They need to be sent back to the wilderness of politics, they make me vomit.

It's disgusting but totally predictable. I've said this before, but people are blowing smoke up their own asses if they think that every for-profit venture out there won't do basically anything to rake in more money.

Totally agreed on the smaller parties to constitute a majority, by the way, it's like democracy at a higher level

There was a thread recently about French people turning in despair to the far-right ... I think that's the only reason anybody ever turns to right-wing politics     

Ben_Reilly wrote:It's disgusting but totally predictable. I've said this before, but people are blowing smoke up their own asses if they think that every for-profit venture out there won't do basically anything to rake in more money.

Totally agreed on the smaller parties to constitute a majority, by the way, it's like democracy at a higher level

There was a thread recently about French people turning in despair to the far-right ... I think that's the only reason anybody ever turns to right-wing politics     

.....Well, we will see how UKIP does at the EU elections next month....

It bothered me, that my best mate, who is LW...Was trying to get me to vote for them, as a protest vote!
...He's mixed race and gay....I tell you that there was a lot of swearing going on, and once i explained to him that they are racist and homophobic, he seemed to be accepting that, but still suggested a protest vote....NOPE.

Catman wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:It's disgusting but totally predictable. I've said this before, but people are blowing smoke up their own asses if they think that every for-profit venture out there won't do basically anything to rake in more money.

Totally agreed on the smaller parties to constitute a majority, by the way, it's like democracy at a higher level

There was a thread recently about French people turning in despair to the far-right ... I think that's the only reason anybody ever turns to right-wing politics     

.....Well, we will see how UKIP does at the EU elections next month....

It bothered me, that my best mate, who is LW...Was trying to get me to vote for them, as a protest vote!
...He's mixed race and gay....I tell you that there was a lot of swearing going on, and once i explained to him that they are racist and homophobic, he seemed to be accepting that, but still suggested a protest vote....NOPE.

It bothers you that your mate has a mind of his own and isn't a robot like you???

smelly_bandit wrote:

Catman wrote:

.....Well, we will see how UKIP does at the EU elections next month....

It bothered me, that my best mate, who is LW...Was trying to get me to vote for them, as a protest vote!
...He's mixed race and gay....I tell you that there was a lot of swearing going on, and once i explained to him that they are racist and homophobic, he seemed to be accepting that, but still suggested a protest vote....NOPE.

It bothers you that your mate has a mind of his own and isn't a robot like you???

It was a two way conversation, you fucking fascist moron.

Catman wrote:

smelly_bandit wrote:


It bothers you that your mate has a mind of his own and isn't a robot like you???

It was a two way conversation, you fucking fascist moron.

sounds more like you were swearing at him until he pretended to agree with you and then did what he wanted to do anyway

sounds more like what you do on here

smelly_bandit wrote:

Catman wrote:

It was a two way conversation, you fucking fascist moron.

sounds more like you were swearing at him until he pretended to agree with you and then did what he wanted to do anyway

sounds more like what you do on here

Yea i was fucking swearing at him, he knows my politics, which we both share (Or rather i thought)
Then he suggests that i should vote UKIP as a protest vote, but knows that they are racist and homophobic.
One spliff too many methinks.  

Er dickhead we have paid twice once to use the NHS and secondly for private health care it is our right. You haven't even paid once you sponge of us.

I will choose if and when I need care. It costs a fortune for the premiums which I could otherwise spend on booze like you do.

Really you have a cheek some of us actually spend our lives saving up and paying for things like Private Health care rather than piss it all against the wall.

Alright said Fred wrote:Er dickhead we have paid twice once to use the NHS and secondly for private health care it is our right. You haven't even paid once you sponge of us.

I will choose if and when I need care. It costs a fortune for the premiums which I could otherwise spend on booze like you do.

Really you have a cheek some of us actually spend our lives saving up and paying for things like Private Health care rather than piss it all against the wall.

WRONG!

I have paid into the system, in more ways than one, i might add.

I just poured another drink, whist laughing in your fucking RW scum face!