Should the wealthy always go private to save the NHS?
It’s no secret that the NHS has been under pressure for years and the strain on its resources looks like not letting up any time soon.
With staffing shortages, long waiting times, funding issues, an aging population and a rise in demand, the NHS has its back up against the wall.
But should those who can afford it be encouraged to go down the private route more in order to ease the NHS’s burden?
Not everyone can afford to, but for those wealth enough who can, should more be done to turn away from the NHS?
That’s the issue tackled by Carlos Jaureguizar, CEO for Bupa in the UK, in an up-coming episode of City PM’s Boardroom Uncovered show.
‘In the end, if someone goes to you it is because you’re adding value’
The CEO said: “It’s funny because you said Bupa versus NHS, I don’t see the versus. I do see it’s complementary.
“I think the NHS, Bupa and other players need to work together to have a better health system.
“The first concept is private players, public players working together to have better healthcare, then having optionality, having a capability to choose what is what suits you better.
“I’m not going to tell you that you should go to Bupa instead of the NHS.
“What I should tell you is I think Bupa brings value to the table. It’s a different value to what they need to bring, and then you have the optionality to choose what works better.
“I do think that as a company, making sure that you are innovative, you bring new products, new services, affordability, availability to the system.
“It brings competition. It makes the NHS improve because they need to do a better job. We need to do a better job.
“So the conclusion I got after 20 years working in health care is that competition is good.
“It gives options and it improves the different players in order to generate value for the customer.
“In the end, if someone goes to you it is because you’re adding value.”
Bupa and NHS ‘work well together’
When challenged on whether companies such as Bupa are taking valuable resources and talent away from the NHS, the CEO said: “We’ve seen lots of doctors or nurses going to Australia or going to Canada.
“I do think that having a good proposition in the UK, public and private, helps keep that talent in the UK and also attracts talent from other countries to come to the UK.
“The stronger the proposition of private-public is in the UK, the better to retain talent and to bring talent.
“Lots of our doctors work in the NHS, work in private and they feel super comfortable doing that because the NHS brings lots of things to the table while also private.
“I do think that the resources can work in both places and they feel comfortable because each player brings something different to the table.
“So in most of our cases, those resources are shared.”