The head of Spire Healthcare, the UK’s biggest hospital company, has said Labour’s plan to turn around long NHS waiting times by using more private hospital capacity is unlikely to work.
Justin Ash, chief executive of Spire Healthcare, said private hospitals could not be expected to solve the crisis in waiting lists overnight.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said the health service should rely on private hospitals in the “short term” to cut the wait for surgery on the NHS and said he is not constrained by ideology over use of the private sector.
Streeting said his aim was to strengthen the NHS over time, subsequently reducing use of the private sector when it was able to do so.
Ash, 59, said: “Nine