Private health insurance?

I think all of us have had experiences of the NHS at its best, but have also suffered very poor care indeed. Generally if the need is high level, severe health problems and emergencies, then the treatment is excellent. It is the 'minor' medical problems, the ones that most impact the everyday life of many people; cataracts, severe pain, joint replacements, that are the ones where treatment is most likely to be poor.

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It's an interesting question that you pose. We have always had private medical insurance through my husbands work, though have used it only rarely and for minor conditions. My career was in the NHS at the sharp end so I have some accurate insights into the pros and cons: like other posters I have had experiences of very poor care in the NHS but also of superb, compassionate and effective care. @Luckygirl, I was interested to read your comments about hip replacement and sorry to hear what a rotten time you had with it. At some point soon mine will need to be replaced and though I could have it done privately, I would hope for a skilled surgeon who does the procedure on a very regular basis - that may not necessarily be someone who undertakes private practice. At the moment I'm inclined to think I'll have it done in an NHS hospital.

When i worked full time all staff were given free health care at a basic rate with the option to upgrade and or include family members which you had to pay fo. It was a godsend when getting dental treatment, new glasses, visits to the ciropodist and when i had realy bad sciatica i was able to use a physio and acupunturist and the cost was met by the insurance. I do miss not having it now I am retired as i still need dental visits, optition appointments and the chiropodist and out of my pension money this can work out quite expensive especially when it comes to new glasses.

I was on a waiting for an operation for ages, and the problem was getting worse so we decided to 'go private'. I spoke to the surgeon and the first thing he said was "Do you have insurance?" When I said no, he said he would do it on NHS as a day patient.
Maybe I was lucky, because there were post-op complications and I was back in hospital for 5 days which would have cost a fortune.