The Office of Fair Trading has announced it will study the private healthcare market in its first review of the sector for more than a decade.

The consumer watchdog is concerned that a handful of providers dominate the market and form a barrier to entry for new private hospitals.

The private healthcare market was worth £6.1 billion in 2009 and is growing because of the ageing population.

Yet according to industry publication Laing’s Healthcare Market Review the independent hospital sector is dominated by five main operators. And the private medical insurance market is led by the same number of major players who account for 80% of business.

A spokesperson for the consumer watchdog believes “patients might not be getting the best deal they could”.

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