A gynaecologist is calling on the government to let him go back to work.

Consultant David Penman has been unable to properly practise since March.

This was when private hospitals were taken over by the Department for Health to increase capacity for the expected Covid-19 surge.

At a cost running into the hundreds of millions of pounds, an extra 8,000 beds and 20,000 medical staff were taken under public control.

Now, almost three months later – having not been fully used – private facilities are almost empty but can't start operating properly until the government contract ceases at the end of this month.

At this stage it isn't even known whether the contract will come to an end or be renewed.

This means things like investigations, pregnancy scanning and routine operations are on hold with waiting lists stacking up.

Mr Penman says he – and other affected colleagues – are desperate to start treating patients again.

The 59-year-old is privately employed but uses specialist facilities and equipment, such as scanners, at Spire Alexandra Hospital in Walderslade and at KIMS Hospital near Maidstone.

Since the government takeover, he has only managed to carry out a handful of consultations by Zoom, rather than the almost 300 appointments he usually has a month.

The Harrietsham resident, who qualified as a doctor in 1984 and worked in the NHS until 2006, says he has lost around £18,000 a month in income, because he was unable to work normally due to the NHS contract with private hospitals. He has received no compensation or governmental support for this.

"I fully agreed with the government action to start with, it was the right thing to do," he said. "But now the extra capacity with private hospitals, and the Nightingale hospitals, isn't needed so they should let us get back to work."

He warns there is a real danger in private and NHS care, that people are not receiving desperately-needed treatment because everything is still geared to the Covid emergency.

"I hope that an arrangement can be made where I am allowed back to work, I just want to treat my patients and also earn a living," he added.

He estimates that he saw 95% of his patients in Walderslade and the other 5% at KIMS, many of whom were referred from the NHS.

Throughout the past three months, Mr Penman has also been on standby to assist with Covid patients at Spire Alexandra is required.

The Daily Mail has reported that NHS England was unable to offer any data on how many private beds were being used but a spokesman said "tens of thousands of patients" had been treated.

They added: "While the priority for private hospital beds was to provide surge capacity for coronavirus patients should it have been needed, meaning it is a mark of success that some of this has not been needed, with numbers of coronavirus inpatients falling, private hospitals are now increasingly playing their part in bringing NHS services back safely."

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