Profit-making NHS hospitals abroad 'will help the economy'

He said any profits would be “marginal” in the scheme of the NHS’s £100 billion budget but the health service should do everything it can to “help UK Plc”.

Under the new plans, hospitals will be encouraged to set up profit-making branches abroad to raise funds for patients at home and raise the international profile of the health service.

Officials from the Department of Health and UK Trade and Industry will launch the joint scheme this autumn, which will aim to build links between hospitals wishing to expand and foreign governments which want access to British health services.

The proposal was reportedly inspired by hospitals in America, including Baltimore's John Hopkins, opening similar branches abroad.

British universities have already successfully exported their brands, including the Nottingham University’s campus in Malaysia.

According to reports in the Independent, upfront investment could only be drawn from income received from private patients and any profits made abroad would be channelled back to the UK.

Health Minister Anne Milton said: "This is good news for NHS patients who will get better services at their local hospital as a result of the work the NHS is doing abroad and the extra investment that will generate.

"This is also good news for the economy, which will benefit from the extra jobs and revenue created by our highly successful life sciences industries as they trade more across the globe.

"The NHS has a world-class reputation, and this exciting development will make the most of that to deliver real benefits for both patients and taxpayers."

But the move was criticised in some quarters.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "The guiding principle of the NHS must be to ensure that outcomes and care for patients comes before profits.

"At a time of huge upheaval in the health service, when waiting times are rising and trusts are being asked to make £20 billion of efficiency savings, this is another concerning distraction. The priority of the Government, hospital trusts and clinicians should be NHS patients."