By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

NHS TAYSIDE will have to pay a private healthcare company to treat thousands of people, even if patients turn their backs on the service.

It has now emerged that the South African-based healthcare group contracted to treat patients from all over Tayside, Fife and Grampian will get their cash even if the numbers treated fall short of expectations.

NHS Tayside’s chief operating officer Gerry Marr took a leading role in negotiating the contract with Netcare and it is his organisation that is playing host to the private company.

He revealed the NHS must send 90% of the patients promised to Netcare, if it is not to fall foul of the contract and pay for patients who are not treated.

Last month The Courier revealed that patients from NHS Grampian were refusing to attend the Scottish Regional Treatment Centre (SRTC) at Stracathro Hospital by Brechin, preferring to wait longer to get treatment closer to home at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Controversially, the last Scottish Executive made over £15 million available on the strict understanding it would be spent bringing in the private sector to treat around 8000 NHS patients at Stracathro over a three-year period.

The move was part of the ambition to cut queues for NHS treatment and meet NHS waiting time targets.

Several of NHS Tayside’s own board members spoke out against entering into a contract with the private sector, stating at the time that the cash should be invested directly in the NHS.

Nevertheless, the STRC was established at Stracathro and the private company began treating patients there at the beginning of January.

Netcare was handed a disused ward at the hospital and given access to operating theatres in the evenings and at weekends when not used routinely by the NHS staff.

Checking on the first six months activity at the SRTC, The Courier discovered that Grampian patients were appearing reluctant to attend Stracathro. Of 341 patients referred to the SRTC, a total of 61 refused the offer.

An NHS Grampian spokesman said those refusing preferred to wait longer for treatment at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

A spokesman for NHS Fife did not have a record of the number of refusals from his region.

Now Mr Marr has explained that the NHS is committed to a level of payment to Netcare, no matter how much work the private healthcare company does at Stracathro.

He is confident, however, that the private company will get enough work and the “risk” in the contract will be avoided.

“We have always been quite clear we have to reach a certain percentage of referral against the contract,” said Mr Marr. “If we consistently fail against that number, we would in fact be paying that company for work we do not send them.”

Patients can refuse to go to the SRTC if they prefer to wait to be treated at a hospital closer to home, but that treatment would be paid for through normal health board budgets and not from the Scottish Executive cash that funds the SRTC contract.

“We have to maintain 90% referral to meet the requirements of the contract,” said Mr Marr. “It’s not the company’s fault if we don’t send patients and they still have costs.

“Equally, for them, there are risks in the contract if they don’t provide services.”

Earlier this month the SRTC started undertaking hip and knee replacement operations, one of the most lucrative areas of work.