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

Gillybob I completely accept your point re queue jumping. My first knee replacement was done by a retired surgeon and anaesthetist and the second by ones who only worked part time in NHS. The hospital staff consisted of some permanent nurses (Old school. Excellent) and some bank nurses who also worked bank shifts in NHS. Not straight forward taking of NHS patients' time. I'm also an NHS patient too as well as ex NHS staff. I did my homework!

It doesnt always work that way. A few years ago my husband had heart problems with atrial fibrillation. As there was a wait for NHS referral, I arranged a private appointment with the senior consultant he was under. He examined him, said there was nothing much wrong, and his worsening symptoms were due to increasing age and a bit of extra weight.
Things got worse, and our GP arranged an angiogram...NHS. he had this on a Tuesday, was seen urgently by surgeon on Friday, and booked in for bypass operation on the Monday, being told to take things very easy over the weekend! I mentioned the consultants view, and he said...well, he'll have a shock when he looks at these pictures!
All went well, thank goodness, and thank goodness for the NHS!

For everyone who queue jumps someone else’s place on the list moves backwards . I don’t mean those requiring emergency surgery, of course they should always take priority, I am talking about those who pay to queue jump .

What bugs me isn’t the private medicine , the private hospital or the private consultation, it’s the paying for a private consultation with the same consultant that someone else has to wait months to see and then queue jumping or effectively pinching the place on the list of someone who can’t afford to pay.

My sister had an ultrasound at an NHS hospital few days ago as she has a severe pain in her side. He told her that he thought she needed to have a CT Scan A doctor at her surgery looked at the results and said that he didn’t think she did!. She wasn’t happy and convinced that there is something wrong she arranged to see a doctor privateky for a second opinion. She got an appointment for yesterday and she only phoned on Friday and the doctor told her that she did need to have a CT scan and that he would arrange for her to have it next week and on the NHS!.
I do know people who have seen consultants privately and then have had procedures carried out at NHS hospitals. .This is quite common. Why wait for months if you can pay to see someone privately for a diagnosis instead of having to wait for several months to see a consultant on the NHS.
I also know people who have had surgeries carried out at private hospitals on the NHS.

That's the best sort of dad to have, surely!

Oh JuliaM every woman's nightmare. Glad that the right course of action was taken in the end.

A few years ago, I was suffering badly from fibroids and heavy bleeding to the point that I was severely aneamic. The consultant that I was under on the NHS just prescribed iron tablets for me and discharged me saying that it would clear up once I had gone through the menopause, I was 49 yrs old at the time. I suffered a heavy bleed and made a mess on my Dads carpet one day as I stood up to leave, and he was shocked to see the state I was in, and offered to fund a private consultation with a Gynaecologist who lived in the same village, who he knew well. I was seen the week after, booked in for investigations and treatment as a day case the following week on the NHS, under his care, and received an Endrometrial Ablation proceedure to remove the Fibroids and some polyps again under the NHS, something that the original consultant should have done in the beginning. The total bill for private care that my Dad paid for was £225 consultation fee, this should have been nil if tye first consultant had done his job properly, and saved me from the horrible situation that I regularly found myself in.

Absolutely right Jane10 and if I had the money to have my TKR done privately, I'd do it in a heart beat. No one else's business what we do with our money, if we have any.

gulligranny No doubt you good people would have been quite happy for my husband to die, as long as the rules had been obeyed!

I’ve no idea how you reached that conclusion, but no one has said or even implied that they think people should die rather than pay privately.

We've only got one life. If anyone is lucky enough to afford to go private in order to gain some more precious quality of life after years of pain with potentially worse to come then do it. I looked on my pension lump sum as my rainy day money and it was a very rainy day.

I was talking about hip replacement gulligranny, not heart conditions. In your situation I'd have done the same.

After being told my husband was on the "urgent" list for his heart problem and then finding that he hadn't even been put on the list for an appointment, we paid to see a consultant. Husband was immediately rushed into NHS hospital where he was operated on successfully. Consultant had no further input, so benefited only from fee of £100.

No doubt you good people would have been quite happy for my husband to die, as long as the rules had been obeyed!

Hello allule, I empathise as my hip pain is severely limiting my life at the moment. I haven't seen mention of a mattress, though could easily have missed it. I'd be interested to have the information. If no-one responds here maybe start a new thread asking about the mattress? Hope something changes for you soon. If my consultant tells me next week I'll have to wait, say, a year for the op I don't know how I'll feel. All the best.

I was put on the waiting list for hip replacement in February, with a clinic appointment in April and pre-op assessment this week....everything cancelled, of course. I am finding things really hard, and my daughters keep urging me to find out if I could have it done privately. This would take about half our savings, if it could be done.
The added difficulty now is not knowing the future. If I knew the length of the NHS wait, as in the past, I could have a better idea, but it all depends on the control of COVID, which I am very pessimistic about.
I looked here for advice of dealing with my hip some months ago, and got some ideas. Someone said how much a new mattress had helped. I can't find this thread now, but need a new mattress, (writing this at 4am!) and would welcome advice.

Jane10 and I had our new knees around the same times, I think.

With my first one I had a private consultation as I didn't know what I should and shouldn't be doing to keep it going until I got to the top of the list - if ever, as the X-ray didn't show how badly it really was. My consultant was quite firm that having the consultation would not get me higher on the NHS list. In the end I paid for that one rather than wait a probable nine or ten months. I think just over £14,000. Prices varied from area to area although all were in Spire.

With the second knee I asked for a named referral in order to get the same consultant, who I knew did NHS work as well as private. This succeeded as he knew my knees and I had the operation quite quickly - and in Spire hospital too! The only difference between private and NHS was that NHS had only two days in hospital rather than four. So, it was a BOGOF knee. £7,000 per knee seems very good value to me!

Just checked our local Spire hospital. All inclusive £14540. That includes all aftercare. Obviously, the price has gone up since my last op 2 years ago but certainly no extras to pay.

Yup

Was it a Spire hospital?

I must admit, I was a bit taken aback myself Jane10 but this is from the website of a fairly local private hospital:

Private knee replacement surgery in the UK usually oscillates around £11,400, however, it may go up to as much as £15,400. This price usually does not cover the post-operational physiotherapy program. Additional costs also involve the diagnostics before the surgery and ^pre-operational consultations.

But surely that is so wrong Gagajo?
Quizqueen- nothing wrong with Private Op in a Private Hospital- as long as it is honestly done, on both sides. Jane10 understood it would be wrong to cut queue, pay for a Consultation and then have NHS treatment- respect.

So wrong too if Consutants deliberately keep their NHS lists really long to encourage private consultations and private ops- leaving junior doctors to do all the NHS work ...And then of course, if anything goes wrong - put patient back into NHS to pay the costs.

Prices must have gone up a lot Chewbacca. There were no after care charges after my op and I was given supplies of meds and items of equipment to take home. All included. The quoted price for a total package was printed out and given to me at the first appointment. I noted that the surgeon and anaesthetist got £1200 each. I suppose the rest was for the facilities, dressings, medication etc plus nursing time.

I had an appointment with a consultant for a TKR on 22nd April but, due to COVID, it was cancelled. I've twice called the consultant's secretary to ask when i might be seen and hafe been told that they're still not seeing "elective surgery patients" and have no idea when they will begin. I then investigated paying privately but was told that without insurance, it's upwards of £15,000, plus after care costs. Out of my price range so nothing for it but to wait and hobble.

A friend paid for a private consultation to get on the NHS list of the consultant she wanted to be with instead of the one she’d been assigned to. Worked perfectly. He arranged all the tests she wanted (which to be fair she did need but was waiting for) swiftly on the NHS.

Update... I heard today that my NHS consultant will be ringing me next week to assess my needs and hopefully then I'll make it onto the waiting list. I'm so pleased! And the guy I previously mentioned has Alzheimer's - early stages but maybe that's why he was bumped up the list by the private consultant. Anyway, at least things are starting to move again regarding hips, here in deepest Cornwall.