A Coffee With Spire Healthcare's James Fountain

Already winners of the Innovation Award, the Medical Practice Award, and the Independent Healthcare Award for Best Healthcare Outcomes to name a few, the accolades for Spire Healthcare keep coming. Since its inception in 2007, Spire Healthcare now the largest provider of private healthcare in the UK has set the standard for patient outcome and care. As we hurtled toward December’s general election, private healthcare in the UK was once again a political football. Trailblazer sat down with Spire Healthcare’s Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon, James Fountain, to talk about the benefits of private healthcare in comparison with the NHS.

Private healthcare enterprises such as Spire Healthcare, are on average seeing an annual increase of between 15 and 25% in the number of Brits choosing to go private. Why is that?

Wait times and choice are undoubtedly at the heart of growth in those opting for private healthcare. I hate to say it, but there is extraordinarily little choice for the millions that depend on the NHS for medical care and wait times are currently at their worst ever level. The NHS is facing unprecedented demand while dealing with a budget and staffing crisis. The shortage of staff and cash affects the quality of patient safety and care, and the public knows it. People turn to Spire Healthcare and private healthcare in general for peace of mind.

For those thinking of going private, can you clarify what the differences are when comparing the NHS with private healthcare?

The difference in treatment is vast from beginning to end. Throughout my career, I’ve found patients want to know who they’re dealing with. It unsettles them when they never see the same doctor or specialist twice. There’s a certain level of security added to the prospect of surgery when you’ve had the same consultant from beginning to end. The maximum wait time for non-urgent surgeries on the NHS is 4 months and 2 weeks. There are currently over 4.43 million patients on NHS waiting lists. 620,000 of them will wait far longer than 4 months and 2 weeks before being treated. If in excruciating joint pain, being made to wait 4 to 9 months, or in some cases a year can make a patient’s life unbearable. Spire Healthcare’s wait times are between 3- and 4-weeks tops. With regards to technology and innovation, there’s an awful lot of red tape to get through before the NHS can approve brand new testing methods and treatments. Spire Healthcare and private healthcare providers across the board are able to welcome and offer modern technologies proven to benefit our patients in a much shorter time frame. Besides that, Spire Healthcare provide a service that is tailored to an individual patients' needs making it much more personal. That goes a long way, particularly when dealing with people who are often at their most vulnerable.

I don’t mean to put you on the spot James, but do you think the NHS should be privatised?

Absolutely not! The NHS has its issues, but like most other Brits I take great pride in the fact we have it. Yes, the model needs work, but the NHS is a non-profit organisation granting millions of people each year access to healthcare based on clinical need not ability to pay. Though underfunded and backlogged, the NHS still manages to provide an excellent standard of care. America has a 2-tier system that leaves millions without sufficient coverage and thousands without coverage at all. As a surgeon and a citizen, that's not something I'd want to see in the UK.

There’s concern that Private healthcare drains resources and the best specialists such as yourself away from the NHS, is that true?

I’ve heard this many times myself, and I’d like to separate fact from fiction. Use of Private healthcare doesn’t damage the NHS at all if anything it supplements it, as the income derived from private patients props up trust revenues. There’s also a common misconception that consultants leave the NHS once we choose to work in private practice causing a specialist skills drain, but that simply isn’t true. I see my private Spire Healthcare patients on a Monday, which is my only non-NHS day. I’ve spent 20 years working for the NHS and don’t plan on leaving any time soon. Keeping the NHS going is also the reason I choose to teach NHS juniors and trainees.

Not to be too personal, but there’s a greater financial incentive to spend all your time providing private healthcare, so why teach?

Part of my role as a consultant in the NHS is to train, but it goes deeper than that. If all I wanted to do was look out for number one, I would leave the NHS and work exclusively in private healthcare. I don’t because caring for the public is not about financial gain. It’s about dedication and compassion. Aside from that, I was a junior once myself and my superiors had to teach me. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be the surgeon I am today. I’m just paying the knowledge I've gained throughout my career forward. On a purely selfish level, I teach so that when I finally retire and need my own hip replacement, I’ll know I’m in capable hands.

On the subject of capable hands, what are your medical expertise?

I’m a Major Trauma and Orthopaedic surgeon. The expertise I provide to Spire Healthcare include Hip and Primary Knee replacements, Acute Fracture Management, and Complex Trauma. I also specialise in the more complex Revision Hip and Knee replacement surgeries, as well as the management of orthopaedic infection.

You make your specialities sound so matter of fact, as though we could all do a spot of knee replacing if we just applied ourselves. I hear that beyond being a top-notch surgeon and teaching at the Royal College of Surgeons, you’ve written a chapter or two, lectured once or thrice, and chair some important medical bodies.

Ha-ha, OK. I do chair and organise the annual North West Periprosthetic Joint Infection Assembly and my written work on orthopaedics has been widely published. I am sometimes asked to represent my peers on a national level on boards and at events such as the British Orthopaedic Associations Congress, and the British Trauma Society. I’ve also been appointed Clinical Director at the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which is a merger of Liverpool’s major hospitals. Aintree and Broadgreen are merging to create the largest orthopaedics department in the UK. We are taking the best bits from each unit and creating a standalone elective centre at Broadgreen while bringing our trauma services together with Aintree’s. Not only will this improve patient care across the city, it will ensure we see more patients, alleviate pressure on our emergency departments, and allow us to perform more procedures. It hasn’t been an easy road, but I’m enormously proud to be part of it.

Speaking of pressure. I understand that in comparison to private healthcare hospitals, such as those run by Spire Healthcare, the NHS can be so bureaucratic it creates unnecessary burdens for managers, surgeons and nurses. Is that true?

I will say this, working for the NHS can take its toll. My easiest and most stress-free days are my operating days. Those are the days that I’m not constantly bombarded with emails and phone calls. Those are the days I’m not weighed down by a mountain of administrative paperwork. There is a huge amount of regulatory burden on the NHS. In some cases it is needed, in others it simply serves to generate needless costs, and hinder efforts to integrate systems and provide better care. As an NHS Clinical Director, I have to make decisions that are best for patient, department, and hospital. Over the years, I’ve learned the hard way you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can always do your best.

Having seen Spire Healthcare’s enviable care and outcome records, it's clear why people are choosing to go private and why they are choosing to do that with Spire Healthcare. Spire Healthcare patients don’t need to worry about waiting times, they don’t need to fear infection rates or MRSA. Spire Healthcare patients have the luxury of choosing their specialists. They also have access to treatments that the NHS can’t or won’t provide. Then there are the little touches at Spire Healthcare facilities that make all the difference. Who doesn’t want to recuperate in private, in surroundings that are a home away from home? Who's going to turn their noses up at individual meal choices and non-restricted visiting times? Spire Healthcare don't want cost to be a factor when it comes to getting the best care possible. Which is why they offer a range of finance options from personalised payment plans to loans If you'd prefer convenience and comfort while getting treatment, or wish to see the best specialists not only in the North West but across the UK, Spire Healthcare should be your next port of call.

For more information on Spire Healthcare Liverpool call 0151 733 7123

Written by George-Carter Cunningham