NHS or Private.

I and my sons (rugby players!) have had many operations privately and do feel guilty that there are others who are not so fortunate and have to wait years in pain. However, it is expensive and once you start a policy with one and you have conditions it is hard to transfer to a cheaper company. My policy just came up for renewal and it was very dear. I thought about cancelling but when you listen to stories now of appointments and operations being cancelled and delayed due to corona and take in the fact that I am getting older and more things could start ceasing up, the benefits out way the financial outlay. Some people buy new cars, houses, boats etc with all their money but personally I prefer to have my private patient plan.

If I had the money I'd go private for my knee replacement. I've seriously considered doing it now that the NHS waiting times are even longer. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't if they were in the financial position to do so.

Just for balance, when DS was a student he had a serious injury to his knee, through a bad rugby tackle. His knee was locked in a bend. He was about to sit his GCSEs, would need an operation and the NHS route seemed to be very slow.
We immediately went to a private physio and to our GP for a referral to a private Orthopaedic surgeon. So we were happy to pay for the operation. This must have triggered something in the system and within 3 weeks we had the NHS operation set up with same surgeon. Great NHS!
We still had 6 months of private physio as the NHS version was non existent.
DS went on to play for his club at county level.

I worked in the NHS (not front line, admin) from 1972 until I retired 6 years ago Spangler - over the years I saw some changes - under Tory & Labour - good and bad!
?

Private health care is a double-edged sword isn't? My socialist background tells me that, where health is concerned, queue jumping because you are fortunate to have money is just so wrong. On the other hand, yes, it means less of a drain on the NHS. When my husband needed major heart surgery (a massive shock, he was only young) but was told there was a waiting list, we very hypocritically decided to just go private and pay for it. He had the operation within a week of diagnosis. We then decided to take out private health insurance for all the family and used private health care on numerous occasions for many years. However, as we got older, the insurance premiums became ridiculously expensive and we decided to cancel it. So we now use the NHS and would only go private it is something really serious that just can't wait. I know we are very fortunate and it does play on my conscience; I was brough up with absolutely no money and we were very poor, fortunately through hard work we now have a very comfortable life and I do feel guilty going private; I certainly know what it's like to struggle.

Not necessarily, my Aunt had a digestive tract problem. Not life threatening, but uncomfortable. She chose to have an operation to rectify the situation, privately.
It was in two parts, part one went well and when it was healed, the second operation was performed. Again in the private hospital. After a couple of days she was sent home. Within 48 hours she was rushed to the NHS hospital with complications, unfortunately she died. There could have been a negligence case, but no one wanted the emotional upset.
That was 7 years ago, last year her daughter was rushed to the local NHS hospital because she had septicaemia due to the same ( but unknown to her) problem. Emergency operation and different procedure. She’s fit and well now.
I’m not saying one is definitely better than the other, but when the chips are down the NHS comes through! And we need to protect it!

Urmstongran

I don’t blame you Spangler. Your money, your choice. People with money choose to travel first class, pay for private education for their kids.

My bugbear with private hospitals is they have no A&E departments so any emergencies etc go straight to the good old NHS.

You are right about A&E, but they do emergencies so well that even the highest in the land use them. We all saw Boris when he came down with Covid19 and back in 2001, Prince Edwards wife Sophie had a life threatening ectopic pregnancy, she was taken the Slough General where she was treated just the same as anyone else.

You might like this post script to our private medical treatment. My wife worked for the NHS for thirty years. She's a retired paramedic.

And they say money can’t buy happiness .

I don’t blame you Spangler. Your money, your choice. People with money choose to travel first class, pay for private education for their kids.

My bugbear with private hospitals is they have no A&E departments so any emergencies etc go straight to the good old NHS.

If you are financially sound, money buys you choices.
I wouldn’t advocate anyone using a credit card to pay for private health conditions as you cannot be sure what the final bill is going to be - there could be complications.
If you pay, you get treatment quicker, and you can indicate what dates suit you best.

I think those “going private” take the burden from the nhs, and many people of working age are enrolled in workplace private health insurance schemes for the convenience of choosing the timing of an op. or procedure.

I hope you and your wife are well now?

I can assure you Spangler that if I had the money I wouldn’t have hesitated to pay for private surgery for my DH who has been waiting over 2 years now . He has had 3 operations cancelled at the last minute and the wait has meant that he has been very seriously ill indeed and has had 2 other emergency surgeries as a result of the neglect . Probably costing the NHS many £ thousands more than if they had just done the original operation 2 years ago. But hey that’s the NHS for you. Why do today what you can put off for 2 years.

You are indeed very fortunate to have the resources to pay for private treatment but I don’t blame you one iota for doing so.