The Department of Health last night emphatically denied claims of secret talks to bulk buy thousands of operations a year from private hospitals.
It was reported that ministers were preparing to announce the first long-term contracts to provide routine care for NHS patients. However, ministerial sources told the Guardian the reports were wrong.
One said: "There have been no secret talks ,and there are no imminent announcements. It is no secret we have been in talks with the private sector to create extra capacity.
"There will be 80 new treatment centres across the country by the end of 2005 in both the NHS and private sectors providing an extra 250,000 treatments a year, but these plans were published in January."
Reports surfaced late last night that the government had been in closed-door negotiations to use its dominant position to bulk buy thousands of operations at a discount.
David Hinchliffe, chairman of the Commons health select committee and Labour MP for Wakefield, was concerned at the reports.
He said: "Buying more operations from the private sector will not increase capacity. All that will happen is surgeons will do more operations for the NHS in the private sector and less on the NHS.
"It will simply end up costing the taxpayer more while in real terms not increasing capacity."
The Times reported that ministers believe that bulk buying is the only way to cut waiting lists in the short term, and say the contracts will allow them to negotiate reduced prices.
Under a concordat signed between the government and private hospital groups in 2000, local NHS trusts can "buy" treatment where there is not enough capacity in the NHS. But to date the scheme has been expensive.
Under the new proposals the health department would guarantee to buy so many operations each year at a substantially discounted price. In return the department would increase the amount of work the private sector does for the NHS.
Following last night's reports a Department of Health spokesman said: "Latest financial estimates indicate that acute treatment purchased from the independent sector last year cost the NHS around £100m.
"Spot purchasing by NHS trusts for small volumes does cost more, but using the independent sector has helped us to drive down waiting lists and treat nearly 60,000 NHS patients more quickly than would otherwise have been possible.
"As the independent treatment centre programme develops there will less and less spot purchasing. This programme is already helping the NHS to secure better value for money by negotiating prices that are near or, in some cases, nearly 10% below the comparable NHS tariff.
In January, the health secretary, John Reid, announced plans to buy more than 40,000 eye operations from a firm with headquarters in South Africa. He said the deal would be part of a £2bn programme to cut waiting lists, and would see up to 15% of NHS operations contracted out. The NHS performed 4.26m elective operations in England last year; 15% of that would be 639,000 operations that could be performed in the private sector.
Mr Reid announced the signing of a contract with Netcare to perform 41,600 cataract operations over the next five years in mobile units travelling between hospitals in England.
The deal is part of a £2bn programme outlined last September. Six other companies from South Africa, Canada and the US have been named as preferred bidders to build and run operating theatres attached to NHS hospitals, but their contracts have yet to be finalised.
