New study links hospital privatisation to worse patient care
The study, led by University of Oxford researchers, has been published in The Lancet Public Health and reflects the findings of multiple PSI studies on the subject.
The researchers drew from 13 longitudinal studies that spanned across various high-income countries. Each study assessed patient care quality before and after healthcare service privatization, including staffing levels, patient mix by insurance type, the number of services provided, doctors' workload, and patients' health outcomes such as avoidable hospitalizations.
Key findings from the study include:
Increases in privatization generally corresponded with worse quality of care, with no studies in the review finding unequivocally positive effects on health outcomes.
Profits, mainly achieved through reducing staff levels and limiting service to patients with restricted health insurance coverage.
Hospital privatization often correspondeds with fewer cleaning staff employed per patient, leading to higher rates of patient infections.
In some studies, higher levels of hospital privatization correlated with increased rates of avoidable deaths.
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A new review, led by University of Oxford researchers, has concluded that hospitals that are privatised typically deliver worse quality care after converting from public ownership.
Oxford study links hospital privatisation to worse patient care
These results undermine the assumption that privatization enhances healthcare quality through increased market competition and by enabling a more flexible, patient-centric approach.
This study further validates the importance of maintaining robust public healthcare systems.
