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Private Cancer Patients in U.K. May Be Avoiding Care Backlog

Private Cancer Patients in U.K. May Be Avoiding Care Backlog

An increase in the number of insurance claims for oncology services during the coronavirus pandemic suggests that patients with private health care are paying their way out of a backlog burdening the U.K.’s National Health Service.

Urgent cancer referrals under the NHS, Britain’s publicly funded health-care system, remained at less than 80% of 2019 levels as of June, according to the latest figures available from NHS England. Meanwhile, oncology insurance invoices for private treatments had almost returned to 2019 volumes in the same month, data from clearing house Healthcode show.

That may indicate that private hospitals have been able to restart services quicker and patients are paying to avoid delays, according to Pat Price, visiting professor at the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London.

Private Cancer Patients in U.K. May Be Avoiding Care Backlog

“The private sector will be used far more,” Price said. Access to treatment “should be led by clinical need, not by how much you can pay.”

There could be as many as 3,500 additional cancer deaths by 2025 as a result of disruptions to diagnoses and treatments in the U.K. during the recent lockdown, according to research published earlier this year in The Lancet.

To help mitigate the backlog as the pandemic unfolded, NHS England reached an agreement to use private-sector facilities for cancer care until the end of the year. This has allowed thousands of NHS patients to be seen at independent facilities, with half of the sector’s bed capacity used for cancer treatment, said David Furness, director of policy and delivery at the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, which represents Britain’s private hospitals.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.