Private healthcare admissions in the UK reached 232,000 in Q2 2024, a 5 per cent increase over the same quarter the previous year and the second-highest quarterly total ever, behind Q1 2024 (240,000).
This is based on the most recent private healthcare admissions PHIN data. This pattern was replicated in private medical insurance-funded admissions, which reached a record 169,000 in Q1 2024 before slightly declining to 164,000 in Q2 2024. This was still record-breaking and up 9 percent from Q2 2023.
Broadstone head of health and protection Brett Hill says: “The crisis in the UK’s public health system continues to drive surging private healthcare admissions, with the record numbers of private hospital admissions being funded by the growth we have seen in the Private Medical Insurance market. Businesses and households across the UK are increasingly willing, where they are able, to take on responsibility for their healthcare needs and purchase medical insurance benefits.
“Hospital admissions funded by Private Medical Insurance account for around seven in 10 of all private treatments. With 80% of Private Medical Insurance policies purchased by employers on behalf of their employees, the significant increase in PMI admissions highlights the fact that UK businesses increasingly see the struggle to keep employees healthy as an existential threat to their productivity and business performance.
“We are seeing employers continuing to expand their coverage of workplace insurance solutions as they battle rising tides of chronic illness and economic inactivity caused by poor health. Businesses recognise the need to invest in healthcare services as they can no longer rely on the NHS to support the health of their employees adequately.
“Demand from businesses for private healthcare services is expected to continue to grow, despite the additional tax burden placed on them in the recent budget, as we see little hope of material reductions in NHS waiting lists in the near future.”