NEWS FEED
Eddie Howe opens new private patient unit supporting NHS patient care in Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has opened a new private patient unit that will provide extra income to support NHS patient care at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital (RBH).
More than 100 local business leaders, health insurers, GPs and medical consultants attended the official launch of a new private patient unit at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital on 28 March to preview the new unit’s facilities.
Opened by Eddie Howe, AFC Bournemouth manger, he said, “It’s no secret the NHS is struggling to sustain funding to provide high quality care to all its patients. When used responsibly by NHS trusts, renting NHS resources to private patients when they aren’t being used can provide a good source of additional income to support NHS patients.
“The new unit at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital is very impressive and I’m sure BPC patients will feel confident in the treatments and facilities on offer there, especially as there are emergency services very close by for added peace of mind.”
The unit will be run by Bournemouth Private Clinic (BPC), an independent organisation created by The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RBCH) to develop its private patient services. The clinic’s sole purpose is to generate RBCH extra income that can be used to provide resources for NHS patients, with more than £3m already reinvested to date.
Contained within the unit are four bedrooms in a private patient ward, two consulting rooms and a treatment room. It will operate six days a week as a standalone service. When crossover services are required, such as operating theatres, the NHS will be able to generate income by renting resources to BPC when they are not being used by NHS patients, who will still have priority.
Launch attendees heard from BPC leukaemia patient Dan Hall, who said, “Because all profits from the Bournemouth Private Clinic go back into care for NHS patients at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, it’s a real win-win situation. It makes sense for the NHS to benefit from private practice rather than seeing the money go elsewhere. The new unit looks amazing too; you could almost believe you were in a five star hotel rather than a hospital.”
BPC manager, Michelle Burden, said, “Consultants working in the NHS have always had the option to work privately and many choose to do so. With our new facilities at BPC, we can now encourage consultants to run their private practices from our hospitals. This means the Trust will be able to benefit from profits raised by providing private patient care, using NHS resources when the Trust has free capacity. This is far better for our Trust than consultants using external facilities to run their practices, as the NHS can’t benefit from that at all.”
