Should hospitals be encouraged to sell services abroad?

YES
Jo Webber, deputy policy director, NHS Confederation

This idea to “sell” the NHS abroad is not necessarily new. But the government’s proposals present the opportunity to do it in a much more systematic way.

The NHS is well regarded internationally and these proposals mean we can help generate additional income and spread the best practice of the NHS off the back of our reputation. Having said that, the duty of any NHS organisation, first and foremost, will always be to treat the needs of its local patients as priority. That should never change.

But we need to look at the health service as something that we can generate income from as well as something that generates spending. If the NHS can use its expertise to help do this, then we should welcome that.



NO
Katherine Murphy, chief executive, The Patients Association

The NHS is at the heart of our daily lives and, as such, we must safeguard its guiding principle – to ensure that outcomes and care for patients come before profits.

At a time of huge upheaval in the health service, when waiting times are rising and trusts are being asked by government to make £20bn of efficiency savings, this is simply the wrong focus. There are a few world-renowned hospitals that are able to promote their skills and services abroad, but these are the exceptions not the rule.

Unleashing this approach across the NHS risks undermining the integrity and quality of the health service. The priority of the government, hospital trusts and clinicians should be NHS patients at home.



YES
Saffron Cordery, director of communi-cations and strategy, The Foundation Trust Network
 
The Foundation Trust Network believes that the NHS should always prioritise NHS patients.

However, in the current challenging financial climate, hospitals need to look for other sources of income outside the NHS, which can then flow back into patient care. Foundation trusts of course would need to be completely transparent about commercial activities and how any profits are channelled back into the NHS with the activities structured so that there is no risk to NHS services.

NHS expertise could be of great value to healthcare in other countries and, provided all the safeguards for the NHS are in place, it could bring benefits to patients here and abroad.



NO
Pamela Barnes, honorary fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and chairman of Action for Sick Children

Action for Sick Children needs to see in place the highest quality services for all sick children and young people in the UK.

Saying no to setting up services abroad does not mean that overseas patients should not be treated in this country or that staff should not be allowed to visit other countries in exchanges of good practice.

Funding is very difficult for the NHS at the moment and, therefore, we query that setting up services abroad would be the best way in which to use our own limited resources.