Just six months after opening, Britain's first private walk-in casualty unit has expanded to offer day surgery services, the company announced today.
Casualty Plus has opened two new operating theatres and is offering fixed price day surgery procedures at its site in Brentford, west London, because of its unexpected success.
Since it launched in October last year, the unit has treated more than 8,000 patients, almost more than double what executives had originally projected.
The new outpatient services are available after referral from a GP. They include general surgery; ear, nose and throat and oral surgery; groin and abdominal hernia repair; varicose veins; circumcision; children's tonsils removal; a range of plastic and cosmetic surgery; gynaecological procedures; and wisdom teeth removal, among others.
Operations cost from £300 for a simple procedure such as the removal of a mole to £1,400 for a more complex one such as a hernia repair. The price includes pre- and post-operative consultations. All patients pay an initial £29 consultation fee.
Casualty Plus's clinical director, Dr Johan du Plessis, said: "Most people have no wish to stay in hospital longer than necessary, and many surgical procedures are sufficiently straightforward with so few complications that they are well suited to management on a day case basis. In fact according to the British Association of Day Surgery more than 50% of surgical procedures are performed as day cases."
Those representing workers in the NHS, however, are against what they see as the beginning of a two-tier health system that benefits the haves over the have-nots at the ultimate expense of the NHS itself.
The London convenor of Unison and SocietyGuardian.co.uk columnist, Geoff Martin, said: "Nobody should be under any illusions. This is a wholly profit-driven exercise. All they're doing is cherry-picking cases which they can maximise their profit on."
Mr Martin added: "What they've successfully done is exploited people's fears about getting that sort of treatment on the NHS."
The NHS has 43 walk-in centres. Since opening in 2000 the centres have treated over four million patients, on average seeing around 100 patients a day. This past February NHS walk-in surgeries cared for 124,423 people, which is a 16% growth in its daily average from the same time last year.
An NHS spokesman said: "Private healthcare is not new or anything the NHS is against. Patients still know that if they are critically hurt they should go to the A&E."
