When radio presenter Iain Dale was rushed into the emergency department at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in July, he was told he’d need to undergo an invasive surgery as soon as possible.
The 62-year-old, who helms the Evening Show on LBC Radio, had been suffering severe pain down the right-hand side of his abdomen for several days and had repeatedly been sick.
Within minutes of being seen, a doctor diagnosed a perforated gallbladder, and told him that the pear-shaped organ would need to come out the moment an operating room became available.
The condition usually occurs when the opening to the gallbladder becomes blocked, leading to inflammation and swelling. Left untreated, it can lead to life-threatening infections.
Within minutes of being seen, a doctor diagnosed Iain Dale with a perforated gallbladder, and told him that the pear-shaped organ would need to be removed
For this reason, more than 60,000 NHS patients have their gallbladder removed every year.
‘I stayed in overnight,’ says Iain, who earlier this year briefly quit his LBC role to run for Parliament, only to abandon his campaign three days later.
‘There wasn’t a bed available, so I had to lie in a reclining chair the whole time.’
The next morning, Iain was moved to intensive care. From there, he assumed he’d be taken to the operating theatre to have his gallbladder removed.
So, he was shocked when, a few hours later, a consultant told him that the procedure was not going to happen after all.
‘He explained that the scans had shown that my gallbladder was incredibly inflamed, which meant it was too dangerous to operate,’ Iain says. ‘I’d have to take antibiotics for six weeks before I could have the procedure.’
However, the surprises did not end there. He was told that due to the record length of the NHS waiting list for surgical procedures, he would not be able to get his gallbladder out once the necessary six weeks had passed.
Instead, Iain would have to wait 18 weeks before his severely damaged gallbladder could be removed – meaning the procedure would not happen until December.
He says it was more than he could bear. ‘When I came out of hospital it felt like my brain and body were running at 60 per cent capacity,’ say Iain. ‘I was constantly searching for words and just felt slow. I wasn’t able to do my radio show and I had to miss a performance I was doing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.
‘The doctors said this impairment was likely to continue until I had the surgery, and I knew I couldn’t wait that long. When you work in radio, you can’t afford to take 18 weeks off work. Your listeners will just go elsewhere. So I knew I had to do something.’
So, like a growing number, Iain decided to turn to private healthcare in order to escape the ever-increasing NHS waiting times.
More than 6 million people are currently waiting for NHS treatment, according to official figures. More than 300,000 have been waiting more than a year.
Figures have risen sharply since the Covid pandemic in 2020 and, despite the best efforts of the Government, have only got worse over the past four years.
As a result, the number of people opting to pay for treatment has risen by nearly 40 per cent since 2021, according to the Private Healthcare Information Network.
This means that, last year, nearly 900,000 people went private. A record 73,000 chose to pay for their treatment – rather than use medical insurance.
Some experts have warned that paying for treatment may be putting lives at risk, as research shows that many private hospitals do not have the facilities to provide emergency treatment.
Iain Dale, 62, helms the Evening Show on LBC Radio
Yet, for patients like Iain, it increasingly feels like the only option, short of living in pain or with debilitating symptoms.
Since 2020, the Conservative Government tried a variety of schemes to get waiting lists down. This included pop-up ‘surgical hubs’, announced in 2022 by then Health Secretary Sajid Javid, where patients could get routine procedures like cataracts and hip replacements done on the High Street or in a car park.
In November 2023, the Conservative Government also announced an extra £800 million to tackle the crisis.
And then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to bring waiting lists down by 2024. But, earlier this year, he admitted he had failed to do so. The new Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also promised to tackle the problem. Controversially, Mr Streeting has said he will pay private clinics to take NHS patients as they have ‘spare capacity’.
Julie Thallon, chairwoman of the Patients Association charity, said she welcomed Labour’s commitment to tackling the waiting list backlog, but said the number of people going private was a serious concern.
‘Many people do not have the resources to pay to be treated privately, she says. ‘We worry that long waits could lead to patients’ health declining perhaps to the point where treatment may become ineffective when they finally receive it.’
Iain Dale, who is due to have his gallbladder op in the next few weeks, says he believes more patients should go private as it will free up NHS resources.
While gallbladder removal costs around £5,000, private health insurance for a patient in their 60s with no underlying health issues is around £120 a month according to the insurance broker MediCompare.
‘By getting my surgery done privately, I’m freeing up space for someone who can’t afford to pay for it, and I’m saving the NHS money,’ Iain says.
‘There’s a stigma in this country about going private, but increasingly it seems like the logical thing to do.’
