Do GPs not like recommending patients being seen privately?

[Didthatreallyhappen2]

My GP recently told me that I needed some urgent tests done and referred me to the local NHS hospital. As we have private health cover (a perk from work), I asked if I could go privately. The answer was no, there was no point as, because the tests were cancer-related, I would be rushed through as an emergency.

However I decided to go to our local private hospital where I have had my tests completed within 2 weeks, rather than waiting the 2 months I would have had to wait on the NHS. I still have further tests to go and these will also be done at the private hospital.

Do GPs not want their patients to be treated at private hospitals? The fact that my insurance has, thankfully, to date paid for my tests (and treatment), means that someone on the NHS lists has moved up a place and can be seen sooner as I don't need that place. Is it just our surgery, or has anyone else come across this?

For the record, like most people I am a huge admirer of the NHS and all its staff - it is just that on this occasion (and given the sheer terror I felt) I chose to take the private route.

If the tests were cancer related then you would have been referred under the two week wait rule anyway.

I'm absolutely not debating your experience with you, it's a genuine question: would you definitely have had to wait two months? I only ask because, since you went the private route, I wondered if you actually got a date two months hence, IYSWIM, or if you were just told that it'd be a two month wait (with the possibility that it would have been faster).

I'd hate to think that GPs resist patients going for private treatment. I'd prefer to think that perhaps they try to discourage it if they think you'd essentially be wasting your money because the NHS would come through for you. But I don't know, maybe it's about making sure that their budgets don't get cut because patients are distorting figures by going private too readily (and thereby dropping out of usage statistics). Watching thread with interest.

I was certainly offered a telephone call from a cancer nurse (I forget the exact specialist phrase) within 2 weeks of the GP's visit (an appointment was indeed made 8 days later which I then turned down). However after that there was then going to be 7 week wait to see a Dr, and then presumably a further wait after that for any tests to be done.

Doesn't sound brilliant, OP. Thanks for the response. Hope the tests turn out OK.

I have found My GP reluctant to refer privately as well. Its incredibly frustrating.

I don't have private insurance for fun i have it because i need to be healthy for work. I cannot wait for months to be seen, health issues need to be resolved ASAP.

Can't speak for GPS, but I've been through both private and NHS treatment for my condition (not cancer) and I have found the main difference apart from the speed is that private do far less admin for you. I had to remember to book all my own tests, procedures and follow ups plus keep the insurance updated at every stage, which was a pain. My insurance also didn't cover outpatient prescriptions - my GP had to step in when I was given a £500 per month private prescription by my specialist, to get the nhs to pay for it. I can imagine people who aren't used to navigating private healthcare or have learning difficulties (for example) would have struggled to make sure they got the appropriate treatment.

I have the opposite from my GP

She always tells me to use it and happily sorts a referral letter really quickly

I work for a GP practice - the GP’s I work with genuinely don’t care either way.

Some do some don't. I have had some GPS ask do you have private health insurance and then say oh good when I say yes. Others have said, I would rather refer you to local NHS relevant place and I have had one just say no don't other I will refer you to the NHS (old white man unsurprisingly). The ones who reccomend going private a usually first generation British or immigrants. The outright anti private health professionals I have come across were all white British and over the age of thirty.