Government overpays private groups £222m for NHS treatments - The Times 19th September 2007

The Government is overpaying private hospital operators by more than £200 million to carry out surgery for NHS patients. In an effort to cut waiting lists, the Government launched a programme in 2005 to outsource some routine surgery to the private sector. It says that it is committed to buying £1.4 billion of services from independent surgical treatment centres (ISTC), including hip replacements, cataract surgery and diagnostics, during the initial phase of this programme.

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