Private equity firms have bought up dozens of UK healthcare companies including ambulance fleets, eye-care clinics and diagnostics businesses over the past two years as they seek to cash in on spiralling NHS waiting lists.
Private equity firms have struck 150 deals for UK healthcare companies since 2021, according to consultancy LaingBuisson, with the past two years the highest in terms of volume since at least 2014.
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Tim Read, director of research at LaingBuisson, said private equity firms were increasingly buying up “organisations that are an integral part of healthcare delivery”.
“The pandemic has demonstrated the value of investing in healthcare services as it showed the resilience of operators which are underpinned by public funding.”
It has been known for a long time now. The Tories have already sold the NHS with privatisation. A large portion of procedures are not done by the NHS anymore. This is why the money doesn’t go anywhere. You may not be paying for it at point of use, but it is not public health anymore.