Private clinics delivering NHS cataract surgery face investigation over claims they have artificially inflated costs for the taxpayer, performed unnecessary operations and incentivised high-street optometrists to refer patients to their services.
The Department of Health and Social Care said it was investigating after The Sunday Times exposed serious concerns among NHS England officials about some clinics’ financial practices, poor post-surgery care and patient safety.
Now the NHS Counter Fraud Authority has been called in to examine billing irregularities in the private cataract market, which has grown by 400 per cent since 2019. Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure in England. The NHS alone pays for 650,000 operations a year. Across England, 131 private clinics have opened since 2019, with costs for the NHS
