The Argus this week revealed that thousands of NHS patients are being treated at private hospitals and clinics in Sussex at a cost of more than £25 million. Is this is an efficient way to spend public money or are NHS managers growing too reliant on the private sector to prop up services? Siobhan Ryan reports.

Nobody would argue that getting a patient treated sooner rather than later is a good thing.

If someone is suffering from a painful knee problem that needs surgery, the last thing they want is to have to wait a long time for treatment because their local hospital is too busy.

Arranging to have that patient treated by a private clinic instead would seem to be a sensible, practical solution.

Take another scenario.

It is the middle of winter and an elderly patient has just had an operation at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton but still needs a little more time to recover.

They no longer really need to be there although they still need to be monitored and the Royal Sussex is swamped with new patients coming in.

It makes sense to arrange for that patient to be transferred to the local Nuffield hospital to create more space for a patient who needs urgent treatment at the Royal Sussex.

But there are growing concerns that the NHS is growing a little too reliant on the private sector.

Occasionally helping out in extreme cases is one thing – but over the years, it seems more and more money is being diverted away from the NHS and into privately-run hospitals and clinics.

Opponents of the so-called “creeping privatisation” of the NHS believe more funding should be ploughed into expanding bed numbers and increasing services within the public sector.

They agree the private sector could be used occasionally as a limited stopgap, but say it should not be become a common occurance.

The problem faced by hospital managers at the moment is they are getting ready to deal with an expected cut in government funding over the next year or so despite hospitals still treating more patients than ever before with ever-more expensive drugs and treatments.

People are living longer, so need more treatment as they get older – an issue that particularly affects areas like Worthing and Eastbourne, which have high numbers of elderly residents.

They have to balance the books and, as a publicly-funded organisation, make savings each year.

So managers have to juggle the cost of permanently opening up more beds and employing more staff to care for the patients in them.

They also have to work out whether the cost of running extra operating theatre sessions to make sure patients needing a routine operation are dealt with within the 18 weeks required.

In early 2008 the Royal Sussex worked out it was actually cheaper for them to arrange for patients to have surgery done at a private hospital than open up a theatre over a weekend and do the job itself.

Information unveiled by The Argus through the Freedom of information Act show that thousands of patients across Sussex have been treated at private hospitals and clinics.

Treatment has included orthopaedic operations, tests and general surgery.

More than 2,000 patients are sent to the Sussex Orthopaedic Treatment Centre in Haywards Heath each year at a cost of more than £8 million.

The centre caused controversy when it opened almost four years ago with campaigners angry at the amount of money being given to a private firm instead of the NHS.

They said the local Royal Sussex was more than capable of doing the job and should not lose the funding for it.

However there is also plenty the NHS managers can do themselves to be more efficient.

Many are working to reduce the amount they spend on expensive agency workers to provide cover for shifts.

Another area where they could cut back is the amount spent on external consultants for advice, which runs into the millions across Sussex every year.

Opponents suggest that expertise should be sought within the NHS itself.

However hospital bosses argue that sometimes spending money on external advice for a one-off project may bring greater benefits in the long run.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has recently appointed financial experts PriceWaterhouseCoopers to help it save cash.

It is paying the company about £500,000 to find out ways to save it up to £50 million over the next two years without cutting beds or losing jobs.

It is a tough challenge, but if met, will help the trust continue to provide and expand its services without it having too much of a financial impact.

It may also help it rely less on the private sector.

It is not just the hospitals that need to work at it.

If more services in the community are developed so people can get checked and assessed enough in their own homes or at local clinics, then they won't have to go into hospital in the first place.

If enough nursing, care homes and rehabilitation places are available, then patients will not have to spend a longer time in hospital than they need to.

Get the right NHS and council services based in the right places, then the hospitals should be able to cope without the need to rely on the private sector.

Should the NHS in Sussex cut the amount it spends in the private sector?