Hip replacement - private and then NHS?? Is this right?

I have known a few people who have used private consultations as a means of queue jumping.

I'm not sure what is ethical theses days...

it has been going on for a long time- and it is disgusting. Some Consultants deliberately keep their NHS list very long in order to encourage people to go privately.

Used to temp in an orthopaedic department and yes it happens with some consultants. They also only had 4 days of working on NHS patients. Disgusting practice.

Some secretaries doubled up as private secretaries for their consultant so NHS paying them and they dealing with private work in NHS time.

So what I don't understand is why the consultants do it - in my case, say I did it this way I'd pay the guy £200 for the consultation and then he'd do the op 'free'. Is it just to get the £200? When I say 'just' I mean is that amount of money worth it to them to encourage people to bypass the system? As a patient I'd feel sordid doing that, even though I badly need the op. I can understand someone paying full whack to go privately, but this arrangement seems unethical to me.

Perhaps a proportion of people do decide to have the op privately?

I've never though about why, but there must be some monetary gain?

Mellow - I agree with you. What is in this for the consultant? Do you think the person who told you this has the wrong end of the stick? If it's true then it should not be happening.

Do any of you live in privately owned houses? If you do, isn't because you can afford to live in a nicer place that you perceive is better than living on a council/housing association estate? What's the difference? Ah, I know- private medicine bad, private school bad, private house good. That's must make sense in the socialist world but it makes no sense to me!!!

My privately owned house used to belong to the council, so I'm not sure if that means I'm allowed an opinion or not.

Oops.
It's a flat. On a council estate.

MissAdventure
quizqueen - the question is really, why is the consultant allowing this person to jump the NHS queue? I have no problem with people paying privately for their operation (although others might) but that is not the issue here.

Yes, that's all I'm curious about - allowing queue-jumping. Like I said I don't have a problem with people paying to go privately for the whole thing. I would if I had £13,000 spare!

I think there are quite a few nhs staff on here, perhaps they'll know?

The great advantage to my privately owned house quizqueen is that now the mortgage is paid off it is mine! I won't suddenly have the rent raised or the landlord deciding he wants to sell it. It was a council house years ago so it's nothing special but I do feel I've got security.

I went to a private hospital for precudeures twice. In both cases I believe the NHS basically paid for me to go there.

It makes no sense to me either. It's the whole cheap boots analagy. Cheap boots last a year for £10. Expensive boots cost £30 but last 10 years. Buying cheap boots is more expensive in the long run but if that's all you can afford at the time....

The NHS forced to work on short term budgets must find it cheaper to pay for out of house services now even though putting in place expensive staff and equipment would cost less over the long term

I don't understand what happened to "procedures" lol

In the past I was told paying to see a Consultant would mean I would be seen quickly but if I then opted for NHS I would be back on the waiting list, same position as if I hadn't had a Consultant appointment,which seems a fair way to do it.

I have known one person who was told in no uncertain terms that they needn't think that the appointment they'd paid for was going to push them up to the top of the nhs list.

My dil also ended up in a private hospital (although she was NHS) when she had to go in for an emergency procedure. I think the NHS do pay for the use of private beds if they are needed. Not a bad arrangement really.

Lets say though, that 2 of us on this thread desperately need a new hip, or have something potentially life threatening.

The person who has paid privately is going to be seen much quicker, and be put on some sort of 'urgent' list.

The one who hasn't paid may still be put on the list, but they may have waited 18 months to be assessed.

A couple of family members have had NHS procedures in private hospitals.

Having NHS procedures at private hospitals is quite common, it is used to clear backlogs and the 'safer' patients who are not likely to need ICU are sent there. However, I am not sure that seeing a private consultant would move you up a NHS queue, surely if that was the case everyone would stick the consultation fee on their credit card to get themselves seen to? May be some confusion and misunderstanding there. QQ I really don't know what point you are trying to make? As the non nonsense Tory that you tell us (frequently) that you are, with no time for benefit scroungers or old people who are unable to pay for their care, perhaps you should opt out of the NHS, pay for all of your consultations and procedures and leave the NHS to the rest of us? Just a thought.

A relative has had three hip replacements, two privately (he had insurance through his job) then one on the NHS, and his last experience (the replacement of a replacement) was the best experience of the three. He also had regular physiotherapy at home afterwards, not available on his private insurance. He was lucky and didn’t have to wait long - in fact he was the one putting it off and his consultant the one telling him to get booked in before he got worse.

Can we be sure that anyone who seems to have jumped the queue isn’t a more urgent case? BIL had to wait for both of his private ops until his specialist thought him ready for them.

Orthopaedic queue jumping on NHS doesn’t happen in this neck of the woods these days.

When you are referred by G.P. (after a lot of jumping through hoops) not literally of course or you wouldn’t be eligible you can’t even request a particular surgeon.

You go to a ‘clearing house’ have a choice of hospital, and then surgeon is allocated, possibly one with shortest list. I don’t think a private consultation affects this process, but there’s no doubt it did happen when GPs had more freedom to refer to individual consultants.

There is clear guidance to consultants that they must not use private services to deliver NHS treatments, that there must be clear divisions between private and NHS treatment. The guidelines say " You can't choose to mix different parts of the same treatment between NHS and private care."
This should be reported to your NHS trust. The consultant is in breech of the guidelines. This used to be very common but it is now against the rules.