Empty beds, locked ward. Absurd price of success

The beds are empty, the lights are off and the doors padlocked. This is the scene on wards at Ravenscourt Park Hospital - one of London's flagship orthopaedic centres.

Doctors are frustrated that they are caught in a "Catch 22" situation because of the Government's latest reforms.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in west London have run out of money for orthopaedic surgery because they have diverted cash to other projects.

Nor can they see NHS patients from around the country because the PCTs, which pay for operations, are being encouraged to send them private.

Ravenscourt Park managers are having to advertise for patients in a bid to stay busy. Health bosses are contacting hospital managers around the country to plead with them to send their patients.

The hospital could have relieved the agony of 5,000 more people this year but red tape has meant it lies half empty.

But since May 9,000 patients have had private operations paid for by the NHS.

The hospital faces a ?9million debt while the Department of Health is entering into multimillion pound contracts with private firms to treat NHS patients.

Health Secretary John Reid says more private treatment centres are needed to cut the time people wait for surgery, especially in orthopaedics where traditionally patients have been forced to wait months or years for operations.

But London already has some of the shortest waiting times in the country. Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Ravenscourt Park, has the lowest waiting times for hip and knee replacements.

Alan Riches, 65, a retired mechanical engineer, was in "horrendous" pain with his hip.

But only 12 weeks after his GP referred him to Ravenscourt Park, he has had a complete hip replacement. Mr Riches, from Eastcote, near Ruislip, said: "Why have a hospital like this and send people private? It is stupid."

Jonathan Johnson, director of surgery, said surgeons had been putting on extra clinics to try to bring more patients to the hospital when they would otherwise have been operating.

He said: "It is ridiculous. We have tried to set up extra clinics to keep surgeons busy."

Robert Doutchwaite, director of development, said managers have tried everything to bring more patients to the hospital. He said: "Hospitals are sending patients to the private sector when they could send them here."

Central to government plans for the NHS is a key pledge that by the end of the year, every patient will be able to choose between four or five hospitals, including one private sector unit, when they are referred for surgery. It means there will be about 80 treatment centres treating 250,000 patients a year.

The new contracts with the private centres will be worth more than ?500 million alone.

Experts have said this money would be better spent within the NHS as existing treatment centres in London are struggling to fill beds because of a lack of money.

"As billions are being funnelled into contracts with private hospitals, NHS hospital trusts are facing massive deficits," said John Lister from campaign group London Health Emergency.

"This policy could see NHS services being closed to meet ministers' demands for operations to be done in the private sector," said Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Treatment centres have already contributed to the lowest waiting times since comparable records began in 1987, offering NHS patients faster access to operations and a choice of where they have the operation."