Independent sector healthcare is paid for in three ways: self-pay (where patients pay out of their own pockets), private medical insurance, and NHS-paid (where the NHS pays to clear waiting list backlogs). Demand the first two is rising as individual patients look for ways to avoid long NHS waiting times, and you might think that this would crowd out the independent sector’s capacity to take on NHS-paid work.

Not a bit of it.

As the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) reports, “the independent sector is now consistently delivering 10% of all NHS elective care – up from around 8% pre-pandemic”. and are calling for better NHS processes so they can do even more.

Those better processes already exist. Optometrists are referring many ophthalmology patients directly to shorter waits in the independent sector. NHS musculoskeletal services are rerouting orthopaedic patients onto faster pathways, even if their original referral was to an NHS hospital.  And NHS Sussex are showing how that principle can be extended to other specialties.

But working with the NHS can still be a frustrating experience for many independent sector providers, who tire of receiving small batches of insufficient information about proposed patient transfers, and being asked to submit onerous data reports in return.

Surely, in 2024, it must be possible to bring all this data together properly and manage it in real time? To share it (anonymously if necessary) between the NHS and independent sectors, so that all sectors can play their full part? And to take the hard work out of reporting by automating it?

It is possible, and Insource can do it. We have long experience of automatically acquiring and fully standardising data from multiple disparate sources, with multi-hospital waiting lists being just one example. We already automate reporting for the independent sector and NHS alike, and those reports are highly configurable to suit local and national information governance requirements.

Perhaps you work for an NHS hospital, and want the independent sector to take more of the load? Do you work for an independent sector hospital, and want to join the data ecosystem of NHS waiting lists? Perhaps you are in an ICB, and want to manage waiting lists seamlessly across all sectors? Whichever it is, get in touch. We can help you achieve your ambition.