PMI demand 'up due to superbug fears'
Tuesday 12th August 2008
Worries over superbugs and hospital cleanliness are increasing demand for private medical insurance (PMI), according to Bupa.
Its 2008 Health of the Nation survey found that 73 per cent of those surveyed cited clean hospitals as a key reason for buying PMI.
Faster specialist access was also a major concern (62 per cent) and skipping waiting lists another (61 per cent).
The concern for clean hospitals was eight per cent lower in last year's survey.
Over a third of respondents (36 per cent) said they would consider going private if they needed an operation in future, while over three-quarters (79 per cent) would recommend PMI to friends and family.
Stephen Flanagan of Bupa said it was "good" that more people were "seeing the benefits that PMI offers, with access to drugs and treatments not widely available on the NHS becoming increasingly important".
Use of antibiotics in livestock is helping to spread superbugs, according to Soil Association policy advisor and organic farmer Richard Young.
He wrote in the Food Magazine that a new strain of MRSA is spreading across Europe, due in part to antibiotics in pig feed.
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