by Our News Desk

A SENIOR cardiologist denounced private healthcare as a con yesterday, accusing NHS doctors who carry out work privately of depriving the public sector. 

Consultant cardiologist John Dean, writing in the British Medical Journal, said he was “increasingly uncomfortable” with working in private practice and decided it would be against his conscience to continue.

“No matter how high I set my own moral and ethical standards I could not escape the fact that I was involved in a business where the conduct of some was so venal it bordered on criminal — the greedy preying on the needy,” he said.

Dr Dean, who works at Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust Hospital, said working in private practice “has direct adverse effects on the NHS” by taking up doctors’ time.

“The business of medicine and the practice of medicine are at odds,” he stressed.

“Private medicine encourages doctors to make decisions on the basis of profit rather than need. When confronted with a choice between two treatment pathways in equipoise — one that earns the doctor no money and the other with a fat fee attached — that conflict is stark.”

He said the most pernicious aspect of private medical work is the indirect effect it has on a consultant’s NHS practice.

“It is difficult to justify subjecting private patients to unnecessary tests and treatments if you avoid doing them to NHS patients.”

Dr Dean added that private practice creates a perverse incentive to increase your NHS waiting times — “after all, the longer they are, the more private practice will accrue.”

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it was difficult to provide a clear figure for how many NHS doctors are also involved in private work as it is not officially recorded.