Helen Salisbury: With the NHS in crisis, why is Labour looking to private hospitals as the solution?

This week the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, promised to bring in the private sector to help reduce NHS waiting lists. He also stated that no extra resources would be available for the health service under a Labour government.1One of the problems with this plan is that it assumes separate sets of doctors and nurses in the NHS and the private sector, with the latter group currently underemployed and kicking their heels. In reality there’s a single pool of staff, nearly all of whom have been trained by the NHS, and many of them work in both sectors. The lack of beds in NHS hospitals isn’t usually a physical equipment issue—it can’t be fixed by a trip to Ikea or even by constructing a Nightingale hospital—but is about having the nurses and doctors to safely care for the patients in the beds.Another barrier to reducing waiting lists is operating theatre…
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