Princess of Wales

If private healthcare is part of your salary I don’t think it would be very straightforward to refuse it

Jose Ann, I’m glad you asked that question as I was wondering the same too

I had an operation with BUPA years ago. Same consultant surgeon I saw on an NHS appointment who didn't know I was in BUPA. Lovely bedside manner at NHS and BUPA hospital. Told I would be in for 2 nights at NHS and was exactly the same at the private hospital. I think Kate's condition is quite serious to be in hospital for 10 - 14 days and not recovered enough for public engagements until after Easter. Probably won't tell us all if it is very serious to not cause public alarm. Hope she makes a full recovery.

Catherine’s surgeon was a gastroenterologist, not a gynaecologist, so I doubt she’s had a hysterectomy as some are suggesting.

Many years ago my late FIL had private healthcare through his employers. My MIL had two hip replacements done (and this was when they kept you in hospital for a long time afterwards). The problem was that private healthcare only gives you so much to spend and so when he needed a heart op they were back to NHS care.

Anyone having gastrointestinal surgery can expect a long stay in hospital NHS or Private. Kate always looks lovely clothes wise and she is always beautifully made up but I have felt recently that she has gone from slim to thin.

I too wish her quickly better. I think that silverlining's comment about length of stays in hospital was drawing attention to the fact that 10 -14 days in hospital is a long time these days and indicates that her op may not have been all that minor.

When I had bowel cancer and had a large portion of large intestine removed I was only in hospital for six days. To get my diagnosis I had to go private and paid for the colonoscopy, £2,000 well spent.
I doubt the Princess of Wales has Crohn's disease, she would be too weak to be so active and carry out so many public appearances.
I do wish her a speedy recovery.

I didn't 'rail' at people who pay to go privately Callistemon21 but I do think the Royals might set an example by using the NHS. There is no doubt in my mind that going privately is queue jumping.

You are right that all this is the fault of successive governments. If we had no private medical industry then all the resources could be directed to the NHS.

Mollygo

Thanks grantanow, but did it reveal how many of the audience/panel had private healthcare?

No, it didn't reveal who on the panel or in the audience had private health care but one panel member said he could afford private care but chose to use the NHS.

I think if private healthcare is part of your employment contract, the idea behind that is to get the op done quickly and to return to work ASAP. Bosses don't want high paid staff sitting around at home waiting for NHS treatment. Time is money and productivity matters.

the Royals might set an example by using the NHS

Really? Then you’d complain that they were taking the place of someone else and could have afforded to ‘go private’!

If we had no private medicine, what resources would thereby be directed to the NHS?

DH had his appendix removed as an NHS emergency patient but the next day was transferred to the Nuffield where he spent a week on antibiotics. He freed up space for more patients in the NHS hospital.

Members of the Royal family couldn’t have their treatment in an NHS hospital. It would involve a massive and very expensive security operation for the duration of their stay. Including 20 odd patients being turfed out of the ward as the entire area would need to be cordoned off for security reasons. During the 10 days estimated for her stay in hospital that could amount to over 100 surgical patients denied treatment.

Going privately is not queue jumping. Many people have resorted to private hospitals for surgery using savings or borrowing money because their quality of life is severely impaired by pain and they are unable to continue without intervention.

Using private health treatment is paying twice.
Once is the contribution for the healthcare made by all who pay tax and national insurance, for the healthcare that other people are getting.
Then you pay for the care that you’re getting by going privately whilst leaving what resources there are in the NHS for those who can’t afford to go privately, or who choose not to do so.
It’s wrong, that people are pushed into borrowing money to pay for private treatment when they have paid through their taxes and NI for treatment on the NHS which is overstretched and now expected to cater for people who have made no contribution.

Grantanow

I didn't 'rail' at people who pay to go privately Callistemon21 but I do think the Royals might set an example by using the NHS. There is no doubt in my mind that going privately is queue jumping.

You are right that all this is the fault of successive governments. If we had no private medical industry then all the resources could be directed to the NHS.

Can you begin to imagine the huge security considerations of treating a senior member of the Royal family in an NHS hospital? It would be absolute mayhem and disrupt the care of other patients. Sometimes we need to see the bigger picture.

Sorry Grannynannywanny I see that you made exactly the same point.

If we had no private medicine, what resources would thereby be directed to the NHS?

I too am wondering.

Grantanow

I didn't 'rail' at people who pay to go privately Callistemon21 but I do think the Royals might set an example by using the NHS. There is no doubt in my mind that going privately is queue jumping.

You are right that all this is the fault of successive governments. If we had no private medical industry then all the resources could be directed to the NHS.

Rail at someone:
Criticise strongly for their failure or wrongdoing

I didn't say you did, just that you (and all of us) need to take successive Governments to task (rail at them) because they are failing the NHS therefore failing all of us.

Some might look on it as queue jumping but how is that logical?
Queue jumping would mean jumping to the head of the NHS queue.

I'm on the NHS Wales list for two operations and it looks as if the wait could be 4-5 years.
If I go to a private hospital (probably one in England) how does that possibly mean I am jumping the NHS queue?
What it does mean is that someone else moves up the NHS list in my place.

Do you mean that private healthcare should be banned altogether in the UK?

Germanshepherdsmum

It doesn’t mean that those who can afford private treatment should refuse it. If they did the waiting lists would be even longer.

This is very true.

Grantanow

I didn't 'rail' at people who pay to go privately Callistemon21 but I do think the Royals might set an example by using the NHS. There is no doubt in my mind that going privately is queue jumping.

You are right that all this is the fault of successive governments. If we had no private medical industry then all the resources could be directed to the NHS.

You are right that all this is the fault of successive governments. If we had no private medical industry then all the resources could be directed to the NHS.

I think that's wishful thinking and it just would not happen. All Governments seem quite happy to have private healthcare alongside a public NHS to relieve the strain on the NHS and where would the huge amount of extra money come from to fund this when they can scarcely find enough to keep the NHS going as it is?
Medical staff would desert these shores and go to work in countries which would welcome them and we would lose their expertise.

At one time the NHS bought services from the private sector eg cataract operations, joint replacements, ENT operations which may have been cost-effective but that doesn't seem to happen here now.

MayBee70

I was only thinking how well the Royal family were doing health wise. I, too hope she makes a full recovery and hope it isn’t anything too serious ( although it must be pretty serious to warrant so much time in hospital). My first thought was hysterectomy and she might struggle to stay so stick thin afterwards.

I thought so too!

You are right that all this is the fault of successive governments. Agreed

If we had no private medical industry then all the resources could be directed to the NHS.

Are you imagining that those who pay for private treatment (on top of their tax and NI contributions to the NHS) would suddenly put the payments they make for private treatment into the NHS?

I’m more inclined to think they’d take their money abroad as some already do, and the medical staff would probably follow.

I agree with honeyrose:
"People are going to speculate about why the Princess of Wales is having surgery - it’s human nature. I’m speculating myself (even though I know it’s none of my business)."
I am speculating because I am worried and concerned about her. Its a long time in hospital and a long time for convalescence. I do so much hope she makes a full recovery for the sake of her family and because she is a wonderful person.

Medical staff are going abroad now, for higher pay and more respect. That is market forces for you (something the Conservatives are supposed to believe in following).

Of course the Princess of Wales can't use the NHS, because of security and because journalists would disrupt the hospital.
What I find wrong is the unthinking assumption that everybody would go private if they had the opportunity, it is just not true.
GSM has given what I would call a thoughtful and considered responce, which, while I may not agree with the sentiment, I respect as not the usual knee jerk.

I am certainly not suggesting that users of private health companies have no principles, but that principles are individual, and that all of us, in the main, try to stick to our own values, whatever they are.