Private healthcare - should we pay?

It is interesting as there seem to be mixed messages about this. I certainly had a combination of private and NHS treatments and scans and this did not seem to present a problem. When I was told I had to wait 6 weeks for an MRI and I was unable to walk I took myself off and paid to have it done privately; I also had the steroid injection privately to get it done in a reasonable time. All the rest of my care and the operation (currently deferred) were NHS.

My experience is that you cannot dip in and out of NHS/private treatment. When DH had a hearing problem which caused severe attacks of dizzyness and vomiting he was told there was a three month wait to see a specialist. When he went for a private consultation it was made very clear that if we went ahead with treatment recommended by the private consultant it would have to be done privately. If he wanted to be treated by the NHS, he would have to go back into the NHS queue and wait his turn, which I think is as it should be.

The government may set the funding rates but it is the local NHS hospital who decides what specific medical hoops need to be jumped through to get certain treatments. The problem is, these are frequently inflexible and do not cover circumstances where someone desperately needs treatment but doesn't fulfill the criteria.

I don't like the two tier system either, but if one of your loved-ones were in need of treatment quickly and could afford to go private, then I guess you would do it. We only have one life. Bu that does not stop us fighting for a better NHS and having sympathy with someone who is unable to pay.

It's not the NHS that restricts, Flickety, it's the government that wants the NHS to save money and limits the amount it can spend. Whilst telling the population that NHS money is ringfenced, the Nicholson challenge asks it to save £20billion. That's not possible.

I understand FlicketyB- but once people can opt out of the NHS, usually those with more money and also more influence and clout- the system becomes devalued and 2 tier. Just like education. And this is what this Government wants. The NHS has been the best health care system in the whole wide world, and seeing it dismantled is so tragic- and even worse for OH who has dedicated his whole life to it- working up to 135 hrs a week for years.

I am afraid that private Consultants do not generally pay for NHS facilities and staff, but arrange to dip in and out. So someone with a heart problem goes to see someone privately (jumping the queue)- operation is then booked on NHS in NHS hospital, using all the facilities and staff, and taking up operating theatre time and staff by-passing the queue- and then transferred back to private system after a few days of post op care. No payment made to NHS, and increasing waiting time for others who can't pay. Just one example.

Private medicine pays top rates for the use of NHS facilities and it is a nice little earner for the NHS. Any system for anything is and will be abused. The answer is to take action to limit abuse not just ban it, people will get round a ban as well. The NHS also use private hospitals when they have more patients than they can treat.

I doubt if private hospitals had to fund their emergency care people would be willing to support the NHS more. We were pushed into the private sector for essential surgery because the NHS set such complicated sets of criteria to qualify for NHS treatment that you could be seriously ill and still not qualify for surgery. DD is having a similar problem at the moment over reconstructive surgery after a serious accident. In her case private treatment, if needed, will be included in a compensation claim, but not everyone is in that situation.

As the NHS restricts the services it provides more and more, private medical care is needed to provide a safety net for the NHS.

The mixture of the 2 systems is open to so much abuse, with some Consultants really abusing the NHS - via the private system. I can't go into detail here, but it is quite despicable and bordering on the fraudulent in many cases.

No your not, Granjura. In fact I would go as far as to say that doctors who work in the NHS should not work in private practice as well.
If private hospitals had to fund their emergency care as well, people would realise how much it really costs and be willing to support the NHS more.

It's like having private schools and then denigrating the state system because it's not as good.

Just wondering if I am the only one who thinks that both systems should be totally separate?

Both DH and DD had their tonsils out privately in the private ward of an NHS hospital. The specialist was the same one they would have seen if the NHS had been prepared to undertake the operations, same operating theatre, same treatment. Both had minor complications because of the severely infected state of their tonsils, DD was found to have abscesses in both.

If I sound slightly miffed, I am. I resented paying to have essential treatment that should be free on the NHS

I went to a private physiotherapist for my frozen shoulder and got much better treatment than I did with the NHS. But then I had to stop when I ran out of money so I wasn't much better off.
I did some work in a private hospital which was next to a big NHS one and they were quite open about the fact that they couldn't cope if things went wrong and they had to rely on help from next door.

I would definitely go along with any major surgery, I would go NHS as they are better equipped for unexpected emergencies. For minor surgery I would go,privately, choosing a date that suits me, the privacy of a private room and of course the comfortable surroundings and attention that this option affords.

I agree Mishap that is a safe way of getting major surgery done because nobody knows when medical help may be required "out of hours".

There are private units in some hospitals, so you get private op + speed of being dealt with, but there are facilities for dealing with emergencies on site. If I do decide to go for a hip replacement, I will go to the specialist orthopaedic hospital where I saw the foot surgeon as they have an on-site private unit.

It depends on what part of the country you live as to what the charges will be. I live in London, saw a Consultant about 2 years ago- a 45 minute consultation, £250.

What Galen said is so true- every time you walk through the hospital door it costs you money. Private prescriptions are expensive and one must also consider what will happen if things go wrong because the NHS is not always happy to pick up the pieces.

A lot depends on what you are having done.

I had a total knee replacement 15 months ago and considered having it done privately. Thankfully I had it done on the NHS as I have had mega problems ever since and the xrays, steroid injections under xray control, Ct scan would have cost me a fortune, not to mention the number of times I have been seen by a medic. I will end up having a revision knee replacement which would cost even more money than the original TKR.

Good luck.

My GP referred me to my Consultant at my request after I was told that a scan date on NHS for the cause of my swelling tummy would be 5 weeks away,I requested this on a Wednesday and saw my man on the following Saturday,he was the Consultant who had delivered my boys years previously after the results he arranged for my admission the following day and I had a life saving operation on the Monday on NHS performed by the same Consultant that was the best £150.00 I have ever spent as he informed me the cancer would have been inoperable if left for 5 weeks,so in my case things worked out very well for me.

Private health care is great if you need a routine, planned operation and are happy having it in a hospital with no medical backup on site. This because they do not usually have any junior doctors available - if you consultant is busy elsewhere you have to wait for them to come in to see you.
You get a nice room and better food etc And maybe a more leisurely consult ation, with a shorter wait to see someone.
It is no good whatsoever for emergencies of any kind. . Also private hospitals are not equipped for that kind of thing. They are also not equipped with radiotherapy units etc. Or possibly the big multidisciplinary teams that NHS have.
So it is a very limited kind of insurance.
Also insurance companies in general may not cover you for things that are already wrong. (if you chimney was damaged last week in the storm, before you were insured, a new policy would not cover it.) Not sure if this applies to medical cover.

You could have a private consultation to find out the details of your problem and what the appropriate treatment is and then consider whether to continue in the private sector or go back into the NHS.

We have private health care with a large excess to keep the monthly charge reasonable. We have both used it for minor ops where we lacked confidence in the NHS or where the condition would only be treated when it became majorly disabling. We have found that the disconcertingly expensive part has been hospital charges.

I am sure that the hospital and specialist could provide an estimate of the cost for you. They must be well used to people in your position seeking private care in the current state of the NHS.

Watch out though! I did that with my ankle and there were lots of non quoted extras. X-ray each time plaster was changed + cost of replastering. What started out as a fixed charge of about £4-5000 turned out to be over £7000

PS Try looking up local private service and just ring them up and ask all the questions you need to. They will be very helpful I am sure.

We never took out health insurance, but just saved money, as we thought that it would be more sensible to have a little pot of cash for when such eventualities arose, rather then fork out every month (at a higher and higher rate) for something we might never use.

I have done mix and match - for instance I speeded up my foot treatment by two private consultations, a private steroid injection and a private scan, but transferred back to NHS when op was mooted.

If you are looking at something like a hip replacement, then I understand that there is an all-in package, so you know what the cost will be. I need a new hip and have decided to opt for private care for that so that I can have it when it suits me. My Dad has died and left me a little bit of cash and he would approve of it being used in that way.

Also if you took out insurance now it would not cover existing conditions!

I would suggest that a private consultation will cost £150 to £200. MRI scan about £500.
The good thing about health insurance is getting expensive operations quickly. The bad things are the monthly cost as you get older for any decent cover. I pay £57 a month but the list of what it doesn't cover is long with a £500 excess. My husband pays £126 a month ( he is 75) and in 20 years has not claimed. It would be a pot of money big enough to fund any operation if we had just saved it.