Ah well, Richard.

My old trust had a health centre with a minor intervention unit, (a room that was classed as an operating theatre for small interventions such as vasectomy, podiatry etc.)

The costs of keeping it up to scratch was quite a bit, but the cost of sending patients to the local acute hospital was much more, not to mention the longer wait for patients.

You know what we did? We slept with your enemy. It made good sense, a good deal for patients and tax payer too. We rented it out at weekends to a company doing cataract operations privately, and the income from that more than paid for the upkeep of the theatre, as well as giving the health centre a lick of much needed paint.

Allowing private health to use NHS facilities can be a bad thing, or it can be a good thing. As ever, individual circumstances have to be taken into account. And the income can make a big difference. the private hospitals on NHS hospital sites bolster NHS services by the income allowing money to be spent on patient care, not to mention helping waiting times.

I am not a fan of the business thrust of many private healthcare companies, and having spent time regulating them, I can say with full conviction that the NHS generally competes favourably in terms of safety, quality and outcome. But they do have a place, and it is not just the worried well either.

But as I said above, I see their role as complimentary rather than replacement. (Although foundation status does make NHS trusts private in many ways, albeit we are the shareholders.)