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

When I saw a consultant privately for my first knee (because I was so desperate), when he saw the X-rays he said he would have to prioritise me on NHS as my 'knee joint had reached the end of the road'. However, that felt wrong to me so I did have the op privately. Prior to that I checked the infection rate at our local NHS hospital and the private hospital. Unfortunately the NHS infection control stats weren't great.
annsixty I hope you can have your op very soon. Keep phoning. Secretaries are human. Surely she'll understand. ?

41janeainsworth
Mellow If you’re anxious to get your surgery done as soon as possible, it might be worth ringing up and saying you’re available at short notice in the event if someone else cancelling their surgery.

Thank you, but I didn't even get as far as the waiting list because my appointment with the consultant in early May was cancelled. So I'm still waiting for that bit of the process!

I worked on the edge of the NHS many moons ago and this was standard practise. You saw a consultant privately and he bumped you up his list. The lines were very blurred between private and NHS. The best thing was to have your op in a NHS hospital. If something goes wrong, the care is much better than private

Mellow If you’re anxious to get your surgery done as soon as possible, it might be worth ringing up and saying you’re available at short notice in the event if someone else cancelling their surgery.
MrA did this a few years ago. He was phoned the following week & had his surgery the week after.

I don't know if this is relevant - I was waiting for another operation -not hip - on NHS - for over a year. That was last summer. I'd had the problem for years.
In the end we rang the surgeon who also worked from a private hospital saying I would pay.
He rang me back personally and asked if we had private insurance, as follow up could cost more. When I said no, he said he would make me a priority on NHS. So the op. was done a month later.
My GP had advised me to do this - ring him up and make a fuss.

Yes, it also says:

'Your position on a NHS waiting list shouldn't be affected if you choose to have a private consultation.'

I can only hope the guy I spoke to got it wrong somehow.

I was due a hip replacement on March 27th, it was cancelled on March 23rd.
It was taking place at the local BMI hospital on the NHS.
This wasn’t my choice, it was the only option I was given, I would have preferred the local NHS hospital where I had superb care for my TKR.
I rang the hospital 2 weeks ago for an update, they told me they are still under contract to the NHS purely for emergency ops.
They suggested I ring the Consultant’s secretary for more information, that was two weeks ago yesterday, she still hasn’t returned my call.
In February when my op was originally due she told me very cuttingly she was only his secretary for his private patients, when I rang the hospital they said she was responsible for all his patients.

trisher I've pm'd you.

*19avitorl
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.*

Yes, that seems more fair. I will certainly check again with the guy who got me thinking about this, but he was adamant that the £200 has whisked him a good way up the list. In fact, like me, he hadn't got as far as the waiting list, which makes it even more dubious. Lots of food for thought. My post seems to have aggrevated one or two people, which it wasn't intended to do. I just wanted clarity. Thank you to those who understand what I wanted and gave me information.

NHS treatments at private hospitals is a different matter the NHS purchases the time and services. The patient isn't involved at all except for their attendance.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 don't understand what happened to "procedures" lol

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

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

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!

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.