SCOTLAND’S new £6 million “luxury private hospital” – the Elanic Hospital – juts out into Glasgow’s Bath Street.
When I walked past the 15,000 sq ft facility on Friday morning, I was struck by its squeaky clean windows – a television screen mounted onto almost each one on the ground floor, mostly advertising hip and knee replacements.
The staff inside – those I could make out at least – sat idle but were beaming.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the hospital’s owner is too.
Elanic CEO and former NHS plastic surgeon Vivek Sivarajan went into private practice in 2013 and set up a plastic surgery clinic in Glasgow – later expanding to include further clinics in Edinburgh, London and Manchester.
Now, Sivarajan (below), who left the NHS due to “increasing demands on his time” according to his website, is going into the private hospital business.
And not just plastic surgery, either. The 15,000 sq ft facility will apparently specialise in Scotland’s “most sought-after surgeries” – which includes cosmetic procedures, but also orthopaedic, bariatric, ENT, gynaecology, urology and general surgery.
And all this with the backing of Professor Jason Leitch, the former national clinical director for the Scottish Government, who helped lead Scotland’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now he (below) sits on Elanic’s board as a non-executive director.
A press release announcing the opening this week said that “a new era of patient-focused private healthcare begins in Scotland” and that the move represented a “significant step forward” in the country’s private healthcare landscape.
But is it and what does it mean for Scotland’s NHS?
ELANIC Hospital is certainly not the first private hospital in Scotland, or even in Glasgow.
Ross Hall Hospital, in Crookston – a southwestern suburb of the city – became (and remains) Scotland’s largest when it opened in 1983.
A part of Circle Health Group, the UK’s largest private healthcare provider, it has Scotland’s only privately run intensive care unit (ICU) and a staff of over 330 consultants.
Then there’s the Nuffield Health Hospital in Glasgow’s west end – just off Great Western Road.
The charity is a big player in the industry. In 2022, Nuffield Health – which operates dozens of private hospitals in England as well as gyms across the UK – had an annual gross income of £1.238 billion, making it the second-largest charity operating in the UK.
That isn’t to say this new addition is insignificant, however.
Elanic Hospital will be the city centre's first private hospital with overnight stays and the first new inpatient centre to open in more than 40 years.
Planning to take around 400 patients a month, Sivarajan has signalled that Elanic plans to expand to other cities around Scotland.
While it certainly won’t be replacing the NHS anytime soon, it does signal a larger shift in Scotland – with Scots increasingly forgoing the NHS in favour of faster treatment by going private.
In 2023, there were 46,000 private hospital admissions in Scotland – an 11% increase from 2022 and representing the highest number of admissions ever.
Scots are certainly more curious now since the pandemic too – more carried out online searches for private health care treatment last year than anywhere else in the UK.
Scotland saw the highest percentage rise of the UK nations, with a 303.87% spike in searches from 13,430 in January 2021 to 54,240 in December 2024.
It’s a trend that worries many – particularly as the NHS increasingly works with private healthcare providers.
Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting vowed last year to go further than Tony Blair in making use of the private sector in a bid to ease NHS pressures – which some see as a precursor to privatisation.
Writing in The Telegraph at the start of the General Election campaign, Streeting said: “We will go further than New Labour ever did. I want the NHS to form partnerships with the private sector that goes beyond just hospitals.”
Dr Iain Kennedy, the chair of BMA Scotland, said the rise in the number of private healthcare providers reflects “growing unmet demand” and that the NHS is “not coping with the massive pressures” it is facing.
“The long waits that many patients are experiencing as a result of the crisis in the NHS are now forcing those who can find the funds to go private,” he told the Sunday National.
“This means Scotland has already drifted into a two-tier health service – quite simply, if you can find the money, then you are more likely to get the timely care you need. It is simply unacceptable and puts the founding principle of our NHS being ‘free at the point of need’ at risk.”
Dr Kennedy added: “All the evidence suggests that over the next 12 months, more and more people will find the NHS is not able to provide the care they need, when they need it, forcing them to raid their savings to go private.
“The answer to this is not to have an ever-expanding private sector, but to urgently address the crisis in the NHS.”
He went on: “The First Minister’s recent announcements on the NHS in terms of the direction of travel, including the need to shift the balance of care and provide more funding directly for GPs, need to be backed up rapidly by both detail and action. We also need to know how aims such as increasing the number of appointments and procedures will be achieved, with hospital care also facing massive challenges.
“We also require a proper long-term workforce plan for the NHS to ensure we have the staff needed to keep up with demand not only now but in the future, and to secure a health service which is sustainable for generations to come.”
