Use of the private sector to carry out operations on the British National Health Service will double in the next five years, the government said Friday.
Newly appointed Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt told a Birmingham conference of NHS managers $5.6 billion would be spent on 1.7 million operations carried out by the private sector.
The number of operations carried out by the private sector, but paid for by the NHS, will rise from the current 5 percent as high as 15 percent.
The government says using the private sector will ensure faster treatment and more choices for patients.
From the end of 2005, patients will be given the choice of five hospitals, including one from the private sector, for treatment.
But opponents are concerned the move could potentially threaten the existence of the NHS.
Vincent Marks, professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Surrey, told the BBC: "This is really the destruction of the NHS.
"Once you start farming it off into private enterprises the NHS as we understood it will gradually disintegrate."
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
