AIBU to feel private psychiatric fees in the UK are exploitative

You may think it's expensive, perhaps it is, but what do you think it costs the NHS to provide these services? Most people vastly underestimate the cost of the treatment they are receiving via the NHS. We have paid for a lot of mental health support for our DD over the years all private. It's cost thousands.

MH services are not fit for purpose, that’s the fault of governments for underfunding glfor years and years.
I see a private psych after being discharged locally. I was seeing and hearing things, threatening my family, overdosing, taking knives to bed. The nhs stopped my antipsychotics and said I had a personality disorder and discharged me.
A family member pays for my psych. I’m back on antipsychotics and so much better. I honestly think I could have caused serious harm when psychotic and it’s terrifying I was discharged.
My private psych I have online consultations with. I don’t pay the charges you’ve been quoted. I believe she works in the nhs too but not in my area. She’s saved my life. And potentially that of others too.

Ther seems very expensive. I had an ADHD assessment about 18 months ago, it was £1000. The psychiatrist was a former NHS consultant for many years and she was in charge of adult ADHD. She spent 3 hours with me on a Zoom call and must have spent something like an hour before the consultation reading the information I sent her and then probably at least another 3 hours writing my report.

Private healthcare is a business. The fees are dictated by the market more than anything. I had a (terrible although that’s beside the point) private GP appointment last month that cost me nearly £400. That was for 20 mins. It makes £700 for an 45 min appointment with an experienced psychiatrist look cheap!

It wasn't the rate that I was posting about, it was the experience.

Is it £700 for 45 mins or £700 for the whole assessment?

When we did DD's autism assessment it was £1000 but that also covered their time reviewing the several forms we had filled in, in detail, and writing up the report. The psychologist arrived clearly having digested what we'd written and the report was a substantial document. A lot more went into it than the length of the appointment. The appointment was only one part of it, probably the shortest part. Of course it is still a lot of money but we're paying for several hours' work plus all their overheads.

We've also had dealings with private psychiatry and it was way less than that for an initial assessment. But there was little prep needed then and the outcome was a prescription and GP letter, so the time the psychiatrist spent was much more similar to the appointment length. I personally have not come across anyone trying to charge me £700 just for 45 mins of their time. If you have then yes that is extortionate.

Look at the costs consultants on other fields charge and then you’d see that £700 for 45 minutes of a highly experienced doctor is on a par.
My DD is an accountant working in the field of land acquisition. She bills her clients £250 an hour for her firm and she’s far from the most expensive accountant in her firm. Colleagues of mine are education consultants having left the chalk face. They charge upwards of £2000 for a day’s consultation with a primary school. A friend is a freelance IT consultant. He charges around £500 an hour plus expenses and has a minimum contractual time of 4 hours.

Open your eyes folks, consultants in all fields of work charge the earth!

The same can be said for any aspect of healthcare - do you think that a mental illness should trump a hip replacement or lung transplant or breast cancer for example?
The cost the op has quoted is very high. Private psychiatry appointments can be half of that cost.
https://psychiatry-uk.com/fees/

The problem with these comparisons is that cost of living is wildly different and the associated costs are different

Where i worked in se Asia a nurse would be earning about 25% of what an equivalent nurse here earns in what was considered a flag ship hospital for the region. Else where it was closer to 10%. Every single cost involved is likely to be much lower

It makes some sense that some where where my eggs cost 90% less, my rent and wage is 75% less that my health care is 75% cheaper too.

Its proportionately cheap to us because we are on higher wages. Its the same of why its cheaper to fly abroad for cosmetic surgery, its usually in an area where everything is much cheaper, there's less regulation, less wage cost etc

Things will always cost more in this country when most of the people in the chain (excluding the outsourced bits) inc cleaners admin etc is earning minimum wage, where our cpd, insurance and regulation costs are high

Those costs feel excessive. I paid £180 for a 30 min appt with a consultant rheumatologist as the wait was too long on nhs and in lots of pain. Fortunately he then transferred me onto his nhs lists for follow up, so didn't have to pay again. £700 for 45 mins seem very high.

Professionals can off course charge a significant fee commensurate with their extensive experience and training, but there is a difference between this and exploiting vunerable people.

I was offered the option to go private and almost double my nhs salary, but I could not reconcile the high fee that the company was going to charge for appointments with me, especially as it is paediatrics and children have no control or choice over whether to go private

I have been through this process with two of my children although we have private medical. I think it's atrocious that they weren't able to see psychiatrists through CAMHS, who missed making important, life changing, possibly even lifesaving diagnoses for both of them because the people who assessed them weren't appropriately qualified. Presumably CAMHS do have some psychiatrists working for them but the vast majority of children never get to see one. I don't think the fees were unreasonable myself but I do think the state of the NHS is appalling.

It would be cheaper to go abroad, find an English speaking one and fly back lol!

When I was looking into private practice in order to meet my normal nhs wage which is about £28 an hour, I was having to look at charging about £110 pounds an hour even if I was fully booked

Im very much not a dr and not on a close to dr wage

That was for far less benefits than the nhs gives me (eg no parental leave, or maternity pay and without the safety net of sick pay etc). It would also be me carrying a lot of more worry of being self employed vs flat wage

It was just to rent a room, no extra admin staff etc just me!

not accounting for the fact that as I was starting up that I wouldnt be fully booked and id need to pay for advertising, and that id have to invest a lot of unpaid time to get it up and running

Didnt include any assessment costs because you need to pay a licence to use certain ones and regular update training, or any equipment type stuff.

Just for me, a cpd budget, a room and insurance

I still have the spreadsheet kicking around somewhere.

I agree some are definitely not! However if the OP feels it will be useful and needed, hopefully they can find one that is worth the money.

I speak as a doctor (not a psychiatrist!) who works for the NHS and also a patient haemorrhaging money on private mental health treatment as the NHS can’t provide it.

I agree it’s rubbish, but given the lack of alternatives I have to find the money.

But psychiatrists are not worth the fees.

I agree with this.

Sadly with the NHS struggling the way it is this isn’t uncommon in multiple areas of healthcare including mental health.

Whilst it would be lovely as a doctor to be able to provide all services for free, it is not. In my opinion it’s no more morally wrong for a psychiatrist to charge the fees they are worth (and they will be paying a lot of hidden costs to even be allowed to come for work including very expensive indemnity insurance for private work, plus lots of tax) than a lawyer or banker or footballer or pop star.

You aren’t wrong but in many areas autism and adhd assessment lists for adults are closed so it’s pay or cope.

we paid for my dd. There’s ongoing costs aswell as nhs GPs largely won’t do shared care anymore so she sees a private psychiatrist every six months at 140 a time and the drugs are 70 a month.

no pay no get.

it’s the way it is now.

YANBU OP but people in the UK think this is normal. I am in East Asia and for my child I just got a full developmental assessment from a well recommended doctor including multiple appointments, MRI to rule out brain issues, and culminating in an AuDHD diagnosis. £360 for the lot, and full access to all notes and diagnostic details. Doctors are not poor here, they are just not taking the piss either.

YANBU and frankly many are beyond lazy and are just walking encyclopaedias of drugs providing info you can get yourself off the internet. My vulnerable son was fleeced out of a huge sum of money from private mental health treatment. The whole industry needs to be regulated better as it’s just a license to make money. One private psych I went to for another child having paid an extortionate amount of money told me he was a psych not a therapist when I asked what type of therapy my child should have alongside the medication. I’d made it clear at triage that I wanted to know what was wrong and what course of action to take. I should have been told prior that I wouldn’t get that info from the appointment I was paying £££££ for.