A Blurring of the Boundaries
The arrival of Olympic Health in Evington has raised questions as to the separation of private healthcare from NHS delivered care. With the company, which is shareholder owned and led, marketing itself in an ‘NHS facility’ and claiming to work closely with the NHS, adopting the principles and values that guide the NHS and even its logos, the waters are truly muddied more than ever before.
Olympus Health Limited is private CQC-registered provider of healthcare. It is registered at The Willows Medical Centre, 184 Coleman Road, Leicester and it “holds various contracts with local health authorities”
Its agreements are based on the NHS Standard Contract framework, which means it can be commissioned by NHS bodies such as the Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and is paid with public funds for specific services.
Olympus Health explicitly states in its marketing materials that services are “free at the point of service and are part of NHS services” but are also accessible privately by patients. Thus, some patients are treated under NHS referral pathways while others are treated as self-paying private patients. This is a dual model which is not entirely unheard of in the modern era of healthcare provision.
Olympus Health says it works with, NHS partners, GP practices and hospital networks. This fits a broader NHS model of community-based specialist services that are designed to reduce hospital waiting lists and ensure care is provided closer to home. Although CQC registered and legally clear to operate, the CQC has not yet inspected the services run by Olympus Health Limited. This is not unusual for new services, although one might have expected that an inspection would be needed before operations begin.
This implies that currently transparency is limited and patients must rely more on the referral pathway clarity and consent (NHS vs private), because Olympus Health works under NHS contracts, operates from an NHS site but also offers private access. The status of a patient’s treatment depends entirely on how they enter the system. Thus, those referred by their GP under the NHS pathway receive NHS care, free, whereas self-referring, therefore paying patients, receive private care.
If something goes wrong, accountability sits, for NHS-funded care, with the NHS and the provider, whereas for private care any complaint is primarily against Olympus Health.
Olympus Health is a private company, CQC-registered, operating from an NHS GP site, it holds NHS-style contracts and may deliver NHS-funded care, it also runs private services alongside that, and it currently has no published overall inspection rating.
This matters because both pathways exist side-by-side, in the same building, through the same provider and sometimes the same staff. The only thing that changes is the contract behind care. That affects whether patients pay, their legal rights and who is accountable.
Based on how these hybrid models work, patients should pay particular attention if referred by a GP but are then offered a quicker paid option, told there is a long NHS wait but immediate private availability, or not clearly told whether care is NHS or private.
You must be clearly told if a service is NHS-funded or private, you must not be pressured into private care, and NHS care should remain available if you choose not to pay.
Willows Medical Centre is a legitimate NHS site, and Olympus Health Limited operates there under NHS contracts, for some services, and private provision for others. You effectively have a privately run GP practice delivering NHS care and a separate private company operating inside the same building and offering both NHS and private care.
GP surgeries in England are typically privately run partnerships or companies contracted to provide NHS services. Neither Willows Medical Centre nor Olympus Health Limited is directly “owned by the NHS”. Both are part of the modern NHS model, where care is delivered by independent providers, sometimes by the NHS and in some cases funded by private contributions from those choosing to pay for their treatment.
The difference with the Willows/Olympus Health is that the model is even more confusing given the integration of the two, thus the boundary between NHS provision and private healthcare is truly blurred.
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