Cleveland Clinic’s private London hospital could spark NHS exodus

US healthcare provider will pay doctors by the year rather than by the operation

Cleveland Clinic’s London hospital at 33 Grosvenor Place will open in spring 2022 and mark a shift in UK private health provision. Cleveland Clinic

A major US healthcare group is set highlight the divide between the UK’s public and private health sectors when its inaugural British hospital opens this year.

In the UK, medics are employed by the public sector while private work is conducted in their spare time and on a fee-for-service basis.

In this promotional video, Cleveland Clinic London chief executive Dr Brian Donley says his intention is to “bring the best of Cleveland Clinic” and “integrate it with the best of UK healthcare”.

There are fears the move will endanger the UK's National Health Service by sparking an exodus of top talent. With widespread discontent in the service over the government's decision to reward NHS workers with just a one per cent pay rise, the threat is real.

"Consultants are increasingly moving around and some of the busy ones are being poached with substantial financial offers, a bit like rainmakers in investment banking," Ted Townsend, of healthcare consultancy LaingBuisson, told the Financial Times.

But doctors are trained on UK taxpayers’ money. Should the Cleveland Clinic model take off in Britain, the private sector could arrogate their expertise.

It could also end a long-running shortage of doctors in the private sector, exacerbated by tighter, post-Brexit immigration rules.

The problem has been highlighted by coronavirus with NHS doctors obliged to work longer hours.

During the pandemic’s first wave, about two thirds of UK private hospitals lay fallow, the Private Healthcare Information Network said, resulting in an 83 per cent year-on-year drop in private patients in April 2020.

How the Cleveland Clinic model will work

Cleveland Clinic plans to employ 1,250 UK staff, and will open a large outpatient centre near Harley Street in September, followed by a 184-bed general hospital overlooking Buckingham Palace in spring 2022. It will be one of the largest private hospitals in the British capital.

Dr Donley believes the key to success will lie in the hybrid remuneration structure: the security of a full-time salary enshrined by the public sector, combined with the profit motive of the private sector.

In short, Cleveland Clinic medics will be paid more as a collective if they do more as a collective.

Dr Donley told the Financial Times the company was looking at ways of helping clear the NHS waiting list, which stands at about 4.59 million people, after Covid triggered a multitude of surgery postponements and cancellations.

Most private healthcare providers in the UK are signed up to a £10 billion ($13.88bn) NHS contract to eradicate the backlog.