[realusername]

In this case it's a UK private hospital not funded by the NHS so the comparison is valid. The article compares one of the most expensive private hospital of the UK to the cost of an average US hospital. Also the US spends more in public taxes for healthcare than the UK so I don't see your point.

[oliwarner]

Should highlight that many private hospitals are attached or "next door" to NHS hospitals. With surgical "complications" (post-infection, mid-op crash, etc), many of these private hospitals will discharge their patients to the NHS hospital for care.

How? Because they can. It keeps costs down and the NHS can't [0] refuse to treat somebody, even if they're coming from a private surgical ward.

I'm not saying that's what's happening here, but this is one reason why private elective care is so cheap in the UK. The other being that they have to compete with £0.

[0] https://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2572.aspx?CategoryID=96

[makomk]

It's actually a UK NHS hospital which operates a private maternity wing on the side. The email address in the brochure is even @nhs.net. They're probably relying on staff and resources from the NHS side to handle more difficult births too.

[alicewales]

Private companies who provide services to the NHS also get @nhs.net email addresses. It's a secure email system so that patient and other confidential data can be exchanged between providers without it going out onto random internet mail servers.

An @nhs.net email doesn't mean "this person/organisation is a part of the NHS", it means they provide services to the NHS and need to deal with patient data.

[Symbiote]

As it says on the hospital's website, "difficult" births will be free to those eligible (British, EU etc) but will be charged to others (presumably people like the wealthy Arab people in the brochure).