‘No dissonance’: boss of private hospital group Spire on its work with the NHS

Justin Ash: ‘All of those people going to a private GP will not be on the 8am call trying to get an appointment at their local clinic.’ Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

In a 1980s redbrick building near Gatwick airport in West Sussex, a new doughnut-shaped CT scanner is a vivid illustration of the extreme pressures facing the NHS.

The £1.5m device, which speeds up the diagnosis of cancer and cardiac conditions, is the centrepiece of a newly refurbished Spire Healthcare hospital, one of the private healthcare chain’s 38 hospitals and 50 clinics and medical centres in England, Wales and Scotland.