An investigation has taken place into the private healthcare available in the Bath area.
The Competition Commission has used the launch of the CircleBath hospital at Peasedown St John three years ago as a case study in an ongoing inquiry into the way the private healthcare sector operates.
The opening of the hospital in 2010 caused waves in the private health market, which in Bath had been dominated by the 30-year-old BMI Bath Clinic hospital at Claverton Down.
The commission study looked at the choose and book system, which gives patients a choice of place, date and time for their first appointment in a hospital or clinic, and at decisions made by private health insurers over which treatment centres to approve.
Its aim was to identify the barriers the Circle group encountered when entering the market.
Circle this week expressed anger at loyalty schemes run by the Bath Clinic to encourage consultants to refer patients to it.
But there is no criticism of these in the report, and BMI says they are similar to others operated by other providers.
The report concludes that the main hurdle faced by Circle was the decision by private health insurance giant Axa PPP not to recognise the Peasedown hospital.
The commission says this appeared to have stemmed from the importance attached by Axa to its national, commercial relationship with BMI.
Consultants from Circle have described the loyalty schemes as 'cash incentives' which stopped patients from accessing their facilities.
CircleBath clinical chairman and consultant ophthalmologist Jonathan Boulton said: "We are deeply disturbed by revelations that the BMI Bath Clinic has been giving cash incentives to doctors so patients cannot access our state-of-the-art hospital.
"The only thing that should matter is improving quality of care for patients.
"Now that these practices have been exposed by the competition watchdog, we feel confident that local NHS and private patients will finally have access to the best healthcare available."
But a spokesman for BMI Healthcare rejected the criticism.
"BMI Healthcare has never made cash handouts to doctors. The report does note the consultant loyalty schemes in place at BMI The Bath Clinic – schemes similar to those operated by other independent healthcare providers – but it does not conclude that they are anti-competitive. Nonetheless, BMI Healthcare considers guidance in this area would be a helpful outcome from the enquiry.
"It is noteworthy that, having examined the entry of a new competitor into the Bath market, the report is not critical of BMI Healthcare."
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