THE British are rightly proud and protective of the National Health Service which makes us suspicious of the private sector meddling in it.

But as the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday this year, what advantages does the private sector offer patients in Worcestershire, especially when so much is often made of the perceived disadvantages?

GPs, led by the Worcestershire Local Medical Committee, fear a new health centre in Worcester will damage traditional general practice and provide a “foot in the door” for the private sector.

They are concerned the centre, expected to open at the end of March, will undermine the cradle to grave relationship doctors have had with patients by replacing it with a more corporate-style system of care because private firms can also bid for the contract.

A nurse called our newsroom in tears when it was announced in May that a private company, Take Care Now (TCN), would take over Worcestershire’s GP out-of-hours service which was run by Worcestershire Primary Care Trust – she wanted to work for the NHS, not a private company.

Even the records of the county’s hospital patients will soon be managed by a private company, Iron Mountain – and moved out of the county, to Birmingham.

But there are many advantages to private sector involvement, particularly for patients in terms of choice, new technology and standards of care.

For a start, Worcestershire Royal Hospital, completed in March 2002, could not have been built without the private sector – the whole project was only achieved through the Private Finance Initiative.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which manages the county’s three main hospitals, including the Royal, is in the process of applying for Foundation Trust status which means more independence from Government.

The move will give health leaders the power to enter partnerships with businesses and private organisations and even borrow money to secure the latest technology to provide improved treatments.

Hospital catering, portering and cleaning are all provided by the private sector but it is worth remembering that 99 per cent of patient services in Worcestershire hospitals are still provided by the public sector.

Michael O’Riordan, board chairman of the trust, even described becoming an FT in terms of running a “business” during a press conference in July which shows how the language of the private sector is now rooted in the NHS.

Worcestershire Primary Care Trust is also obliged to ‘market test’ services regularly (another term borrowed from the world of private sector).

But this procedure allows the PCT to make sure it can secure the best quality of services for patients and the best value for money.

The private sector has also brought in new skills, some from overseas.

The Renal Dialysis Service at Kidderminster is provided by B.Braun Avitum (UK) Ltd, an experienced German-based company which prevents Worcestershire patients having to travel to Birmingham for treatment.

The Independent Treatment Centre within the Kidderminster Treatment Centre is run by Interhealth Care Services (UK) and the acute hospitals trust.

It offers a wide range of orthopaedic surgical procedures and other diagnostic and treatment services including physiotherapy, X-ray, Ultrasound and MRI and CT scanning. It is just one example of a fruitful partnership between the NHS and the private sector.

Since it opened in February 2005 this private company, which has a contract with the NHS, has seen thousands of patients and performed more than 5,000 operations and offered a range of orthopaedic treatments, helping to slash waiting lists. All patients wait no longer than 13 weeks from the date that their GP refers them for their treatment and most wait a much shorter time than that.

Although Interhealth is an independent company, treatment is totally free in exactly the same way as it would be at an NHS hospital – patients are still NHS, not private.

To be seen at the treatment centre patients need to be referred by their GP either through the choose and book system or by written letter.

Alan Jarman, aged 70, of Dragonfly Green, Worcester, had a total knee replacement carried out in March this year because arthritis in his knee meant he could not bend or straighten it.

Since the operation in February his mobility has dramatically changed and he has been able to return to a normal life, thanks to expertise in the private sector.

Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, which oversees the work of GPs and dentists and manages the community hospitals, has a budget of about £746 million a year (2008/09) of which about five per cent is spent on commissioning services from the private sector.

Simon Trickett, who works on the PCT’s communications team, said: “We are determined to commission the best services we can for patients within the resources we have.

“Our focus is on the quality of the service and the value for money and it is those two factors that will determine who actually provides the service to patients.”

Ray Steggles, a Worcester dentist based at the Wharf Dental Practice, says sometimes the NHS alone is just not enough to meet the needs of patients.

He said: “When I qualified 30 years ago there were limited treatment options and that remained the case until about 12 years ago, when there was a sudden explosion of advances in technology increasing choice.

“Whilst general medicine benefited from increased funding within the NHS to keep abreast of advances, dentistry was left behind with an effective reduction in general dental services spending of 18 per cent between 1992 and 2005.

“This means that patients wanting to avail themselves of the newer types of dental treatment relied on personal investment by dentists to provide the choice private treatment offers.

“We are seeing a separation between treatment provided within the NHS system, where there is a constant seeking for value for money, which effectively means traditional treatments, which could be described as ‘retro-dentistry’ and the private sector where there is much greater choice.”

To provide that choice, Mr Steggles has invested £200,000 in new technologies to allow new, more comfortable treatments.

He said: “The success of this has allowed me to research gum disease treatment, which I hope will feed back into care within and outside the NHS, positively influencing the health of generations to come.”