Scottish NHS signs £4m deal with private sector

The National Health Service in Scotland has concluded its biggest deal of recent years with private hospitals to speed up the treatment of people waiting for hip and knee surgery.

It has provisionally booked all the spare capacity for orthopaedic surgery in Scotland's private hospitals over the next six months, at a cost of £4m ($6.2m; €6.4m). The money will be used to treat about 500 patients who have been waiting up to a year for hip or knee replacement surgery.

The decision …