Washington private hospital publishes prices of 75 procedures

A Washington private hospital has revealed the prices of common procedures, allowing patients to compare treatment costs.

Spire Washington Hospital, has published the prices of its 75 most common procedures on its wesbite.

The new data will give North East patients the opportunity to compare the cost of treatments when looking for care in the private sector.

Spire Washington Hospital is one of over 150 hospitals across the UK that have published the data.

The North East hospital is part of Spire Healthcare, which is one of the five largest private hospital groups deciding to publish these prices for the first time.

This comes at a time when the Competition Commission is investigating whether there are any features of the private healthcare market that prevent, restrict or distort competition.

Shelagh Alderson, Hospital Director for Spire Washington Hospital, said:“One of Spire Healthcare’s corporate values is ‘Doing the right thing’.

“The reason Spire Washington Hospital is heavily backing and involved in this initiative is because we believe consumers should have all the information necessary, in as clear and comparable a format as possible, for them to make informed decisions about where to have their treatments.

“An increasing number of patients are now choosing to self-fund their treatment, rather than wait to be treated on the NHS or by contributing to private medical insurance.

“Patients funding their care in this way now easily have access to all the pricing information they need to help make their decision.

“However, both GPs and patients in the North East are cautioned against purely choosing their provider on the basis of price.

“It is the quality of care which is the paramount factor to consider when choosing a private hospital.”

The hospital’s own patient satisfaction survey in 2012 found that 99% of patients rated the quality of service as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good.’

And according to data released by the NHS Partners Network earlier this year about hip and knee replacement surgery, Spire Healthcare has the largest number (eight) of hospitals in the top 50 for patient ‘health gain’ following hip replacement, with four Spire hospitals appearing in the same category following knee replacement.

In 2012 Spire Healthcare reported the fewest infections to the Health Protection Agency since its formation in 2007.