How much private provision of healthcare is there in Scotland and does that affect the NHS provision?
No information is routinely collected by the Scottish Executive Health Department on private health sector provision or usage, and sources of data that identify Scotland separately from the rest of the UK are difficult to obtain. In 2002-3 there were 10 independent acute hospitals in Scotland with a capacity of 442 beds. Relative to the NHS this is very small representing only about 2.4% of the total acute beds across public and private sectors in Scotland. Also, Scotland has only 4.7% of the 9463 UK independent sector acute beds so independent sector capacity is greater per head of population in the rest of the UK. In addition, in Scotland, there are a small number of facilities offering mental health services (e.g. drug rehabilitation). The proportion of adults covered by Private Medical Insurance (PMI) is generally lower in Scotland than the rest of the UK. Estimates of prevalence of PMI at 8% for Scotland compared to 12.3% in Great Britain as a whole in 2001 and 19% for the South E
