NHS hospital may advertise for patients

A flagship heart hospital is to consider advertising for patients to fill empty beds.

University College Hospital London claims other parts of the NHS are holding on to patients to secure Whitehall cash and are reluctant to send cardiac patients to its formerly private Harley Street facility.

This is creating spare capacity at a time when the Government is seeking to give patients a choice of where and when they are treated.

University College took over the Heart Hospital two years ago, paying £27 million for the state-of-the art facility, offering hope of surgery in weeks rather than months for hundreds of patients stuck on waiting lists.

It was expected to provide an extra 600 operations a year.

According to its chief executive, other hospitals are reluctant to refer patients there for fear of losing income and their ability to train junior doctors.

Robert Naylor said while initially a large number of patients were sent for treatment, this has dried up. Patients were still being sent to the private sector, despite some of the Heart Hospital's 95 beds being unused.

"We haven't got people hanging around doing nothing yet, but we are not making full use of our capacity," said Mr Naylor.

Patients waiting more than six months could soon be targeted to lure them to the hospital, he added, though that was not the view of the majority on the hospital's board.

"But it doesn't make sense that while we have spare capacity available here in the NHS, the service is also paying the private sector to do the operating."

Mr Naylor added that he supported the Government's drive to give patients choice but hospitals had to overcome their reluctance to send patients elsewhere in the NHS for treatment.

A recent Department of Health report said that with greater choice available to patients, both public and private hospitals will begin to advertise. The Heart Hospital was the first private facility to be brought back under the NHS umbrella.