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Private Healthcare Market Report 2008
Key Note Publications Ltd, June 2008
The total UK market for private healthcare was worth £24.77bn in 2007, a rise of 8.1% on 2006 and an increase of 31.9% since 2003. The market is currently thriving, with sectors such as mental health, elderly care homes and, to some extent, acute care benefiting from increased levels of public funding and a shift from public to private provision.
The NHS is in a period of transition and it is not yet clear how it will compare with its privately funded rival over the next few years. Waiting lists have been reduced and the quality of care is perceived to have improved in a number of areas of the service. This presents a very real threat to the future of the private healthcare market and could deter use of private treatment. In addition, while sectors such as acute care have benefited from the NHS commissioning of provision to cut waiting lists, this situation may not continue. Indeed, over the next 5 years (2008 to 2012), a clear and secure path to revenue growth is not evident.
The independent hospital sector has also had to become more competitive and deliver greater cost efficiency in order to comply with the controlled tariffs imposed by the NHS. The entire acute care industry is likely to have to become more efficient, with pressure coming from the private medical insurance (PMI) industry, which is continually looking for ways to deliver a cheaper and more attractive proposition to its consumers. The PMI industry itself is highly mature, and a fall in membership levels over the past 5 years is currently being addressed with more competitive, and perceptibly cheaper, products on the market.
In terms of long-term care for both the elderly and the mentally ill, greater outsourcing by local authorities is the prevailing trend, but again, a focus on costs and the need to deliver a lean and efficient business model to attract long-term commissioning appear to be pre-requisites. The same can be said for short-term acute provision for the mentally ill in the independent mental health hospital sector, which is currently burgeoning, but which needs to stay cost-efficient and competitive.
Consumers are ambivalent in their attitudes towards the private healthcare market. Key Note's consumer research reveals that the large majority of consumers are extremely loyal to the NHS — more than 80% would prefer to use it if quality of care could be guaranteed. However, at the same time, almost half aspire to the privileged treatment afforded through the private system. This ambivalence presents opportunities for the industry: the future for the private healthcare industry may be one offering cheaper forms of healthcare and insurance packages which really give patients benefits that the state system is unable to provide.
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