Divisional Managers Katie Jones and Benedict Warnes recently attended the LaingBuisson Acute Private Healthcare Conference on behalf of Compass Associates.

Key takeaways from the Acute Private Healthcare Conference 2022

The conference was incredibly beneficial for giving insight into patient perspectives from the healthcare markets. The use of private healthcare markets has increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as NHS waiting lists have increased significantly. Middle-class earners are buying into private healthcare to gain quicker access to a diagnosis, and this is likely to increase so they do not have to deal with long wait lists.

Private medical insurance has not really seen a growth increase over the last ten years and has consistently been very steady. Private medical insurance claims saw a dip during the pandemic due to a decrease in access to care. However, the use of private medical insurance is predicted to grow in a post-COVD world, resulting in less reliance on NHS services and more on private healthcare. We are seeing a decrease in personal private medical insurance due to the increase in company private medical insurance being introduced as a benefit in many businesses.

One of the speakers highlighted that their current biggest focus is on recruitment as it is an incredibly important aspect of businesses and the private healthcare sector overall. Their biggest priority is looking after people and retaining them. The focus on recruitment ensures that the healthcare sector benefits from obtaining good-quality candidates.

The conference covered private hospital performance, highlighted regions with high vacancies and the need to focus on recruiting clinicians within these regions.

There have been recent changes to Care Quality Commission (CQC). The commission ensures the quality and safety of care in hospitals, dentists, ambulances, and care homes, and the care given in people’s own homes. Some of these changes are quite complex as it means the way inspections are conducted will be changing. This was an incredibly important key takeaway as it helps us as recruiters understand any changes happening within the industry and also emphasise on these changes to both clients and candidates.

With the use of digital healthcare having been accelerated thanks to pandemic, the conference also introduced The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN). PHIN is an independent, government-mandated organisation that publishes performance and fees information about private consultants and hospitals for private patients to access. The aim of PHIN is to work closely with hospitals, consultants, regulators and other public bodies to help monitor and improve standards of care.

Sustainability is a key focus for the healthcare sector globally as healthcare in some of the world’s largest economies accounts for 4-5% of global carbon emissions. BUPA and AVIVA have committed to have net zero carbon emissions by 2040 to counteract this.

Key statistics within the healthcare sector

• There are currently 7 million people on NHS waiting lists, with 5.7 million not having had a diagnosis and 1 million people diagnosed who are waiting for treatment. This in turn is likely to see an increase in private diagnostics as a result
• Increase in private referrals when compared to referrals from the NHS with patient self-pay having risen by 40% since the pandemic
• 50% of all ophthalmology cases are now carried out privately
• 500,000 patients on Orthopedic waiting lists currently
• The overall healthcare sector has a shortage of 103,000 full-time healthcare workers equating to 7% of vacancies unfilled. This shortfall has been put down to lack of career progression and mental health challenges
• Recruitment is key to combat the shortage issue
• 15% of all healthcare workers from overseas
• The NHS needs to save £20bn due to public sector cuts and economic reasons
• Public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped by 30%
• The healthcare sector accounts for 4-5% of global carbon emissions and needs to look at ways to reduce this
• Greater London holds 35% of the value of private acute with Orthopedics and Ophthalmology being the 2 biggest markets

A general overview

Both Katie and Ben found the conference invaluable with the expertise and knowledge offered at the event. After discussing what they thought were the key takeaways from the event and how these were beneficial, they summarised a final overview of the conference.

Katie Jones commented:

“The conference gave a good overall of current market insight such as statistics from pre-COVID, during COVID and to now, showing an increase in some markets having grown quite significantly. There was a good mix of clinicians talking from a business perspective. It was insightful to learn about CQC changes as this is good to know for when talking to clients and candidates as compliance may change.

Also having the opportunity to network with my clients and candidates was useful so that we could place faces to names, and network with others within the industry.”

Benedict Warnes commented:

“It was a really good, interesting and informative event overall. This conference was very relevant to our recruitment sector for knowledge within private acute hospitals.

The speakers were excellent and some of these I knew already so it was invaluable to gain industry insight from them. They provided lots of interesting statistics, facts and figures, and also gave an overview of where funding was coming from within the private acute healthcare sector.

The conference also gave us the opportunity to catch up with some of our clients and candidates which was great to be able to meet in person.”

About Private Acute Healthcare Conference 2022

LaingBuisson brought together its unique research, latest data, and sector forecasts to support professionals within private acute healthcare while setting your budgets for 2022 and beyond. The conference provides a combination of objective insight and senior delegate participation from industry experts across the private acute healthcare sector.

The panelists

The conference had a variety of speakers from within the healthcare sector that discussed their knowledge and expertise. The speakers were in the order as follows:

• Aubrey Bristow – Consultant Anaesthetist and Director, Phoenix Hospital Group
• Daniel Sulivan – B2B Marketing & Customer Director, BUPA
• David Hare – CEO, IHPN
• Fiona Booth – Head of External Affairs & Stakeholder Engagement at Healthcode
• Jamie Foster – Partner, Hill Dickinson
• Kate Shoesmith – Deputy CEO, REC
• Liz Heath – Consultant & Author, LaingBuisson
• Nathan Griffiths – Account Executive, Reputation
• Prokar Dasgupta – Professor of Surgery, The London Clinic
• Suhail Mirza – Healthcare Workforce & Recruitment UK Market Report Author and Consultant, LainBuisson
• Tommaso Falcone – Medical Director. Cleveland Clinic

Find out more about the latest LaingBuisson and their events here. For further information about news and events from Compass Associates, click here.