PRIVATE PATIENTS

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 22

PRIVATE PATIENTS

Govt move in U.K.

(N.Z. Press Assn-~Copyright) LONDON. The British Labour Government has doubled its charges for private treatment in hospitals within the Health Service, im•j posing a second substantial rise in a year. : The United Provident the largest of ■I the country’s private health- ’ insurance groups, has I branded the rises as “punitive and a little bit like 1 profiteering.” : i Mr Anison’s Government j pressing to phase out private practice within the In'.H.S., is embroiled in a bit■iter struggle with specialists ‘ who are allowed to treat ' private patients for large fees in State hospitals. The new charges, effective! an April 1, mean that a private bed in a London hospia! will cost a patient 260 a week, plus surgeon’s and other fees. The Health Department names the new charges on ncreases in wages paid to ! nembers of militant health! i ervice unions, and on bur-! ‘ leoning costs. j About 400.000 nurses and j nidwives have won a pay! ! 'eal against a backdrop of: ;trike threats. The will boost student nurses’: iav by nearly one-third to; £3O a week, and will mean substantial rises for higher: grades. I