The British NHS prepare to franchise itself overseas ( Archived) (10)

Ref Guardian


In recent years, a handful of NHS trusts have set up franchises abroad. Specialist eye hospital Moorfields has branches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, while South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation trust has set up mental health services in Abu Dhabi and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation trust is helping to develop hospital services in China.

Together, NHS organisations have won export business of more than £100m over the last two years. But ministers want to go much further - to increase overseas investment seventy-fold over the next decade.

And officials are in talks with NHS watchdogs the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and National Institute of Care and Health Excellence (Nice) about whether they could sell their expertise abroad, to countries attempting to strengthen healthcare regulation and assessment of new medicines.

Deborah Kobewka, managing director of Healthcare UK - a joint initiative of the Department for International Trade, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England - said a major expansion of NHS healthcare overseas is now planned.

She told The Telegraph: “We feel the opportunities are quite untapped: there has been around £100m of NHS deals abroad in the last couple of years, but we have identified opportunities of around £7bn.”

The benefits for the NHS were plentiful, she said.


“If NHS foundation trusts do this they can put profits into frontline patient services, but it also offers opportunities for recruitment and retention - many staff want to do some work abroad - as well as strengthening research,” she said.

In addition, the use of the NHS brand abroad would consolidate its reputation, she suggested.

“This is about showcasing our expertise to the world.”

A number of NHS arms-length bodies are in talks about setting up versions abroad, or training overseas teams in their expertise, she revealed.

Public Health England - which provides advice on how to keep healthy - workforce planners Health Education England, and data experts NHS Digital are among those discussing the benefits of such models, along with CQC and Nice.

Such organisations are limited by legal restrictions, but might be able to set up Special Purpose Vehicles in order to expand globally.

Professor Sir Malcom Grant, chairman of NHS England said NHS trusts would be offered tailored support from experts at Healthcare UK to develop their export capabilities, to help them reach a wide range of international markets.

“In the next year, the mission will be closely focused on providing a showcase for great British healthcare services, building a strong brand across the globe and realising the amazing export potential of our world-class health system,” he said.

However, the plans last night drew some criticism, with concern that any transfer of existing NHS staff overseas could exacerbate shortages in key groups, such as nurses.

Joyce Robin, from Patient Concern said: “This would be all very nice if we had a surplus of staff to go and share their expertise around the world, but the NHS is actually scrabbling to treat its own patients, because there is such a dire shortage of nurses. I think the idea is ridiculous.”

Today’s announcement comes a fortnight after the Department for International Trade launched the government’s new Export Strategy, which sets an ambition to increase exports as a percentage of GDP from 30 per cent to 35 per cent.

The department estimates that 400,000 businesses believe they could export but don’t.

“Brexit is not the occasion to ‘pull up the drawbridge’ but to embrace the opportunities that the changing pattern of global trade presents,” International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told a business audience in London, last month.

Under the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, passed by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, hospitals are allowed to get 49 per cent of their income from commercial sources.

This is really for the British, thanks for your comment anyway.

An interesting idea, and one I'd like to see get traction over here... The Irish 2 tier system has failed a huge number of people with what I can only describe as privateer consultants playing the HSE (our representative of the NHS) to the point where waiting lists for elective surgeries can run into years... This might just be a middle ground alternative to long waiting lists, inflated insurance premiums and a 'health if you can afford it' culture....

Yes it's the same principal, bur you seem to have it worse in Eire. Maybe the future NHS is earmarked to be sold on like so many of our national treasures

I hope for everyone's sake the NHS stays as I remember it, and yes, it's the jewel in the crown in so far as only Cuba has a health system that is so patient focused... You're absolutely right about our service, but here's a thing, while we can't keep doctors and nurses, I'm sure they'd be happy to work in a franchise setting that would reward and (hopefully) respect the time, effort and dedication our frontline staff offer, and I say that as a patient of the HSE...
This got me wondering, franchising the HSE to the states, a challenge, but done right, an expansive market.... I never knew Obama-care, and I've no idea what DT has up his sleeve, but I'd be surprised if it would be a match for the English system....

Franchising the NHS is like exporting Morris Mini. It's a romantic indulgence, they used to work ok at the best of times, but it's totally outdated, under-engineered, and just when you really need it, it'll fail you and leave stranded. The garage has a waiting list into 2019.