Does anyone know about transfering from an NHS to private hospital

[Bunnybigears]

My DF had a stroke on Friday, he is still waiting in an NHS hospital for an operation to drill holes in his skull to relieve the pressure. He has been ready to go for surgery 4 times and each time they dont go ahead because of other more urgent cases coming in (which is understandable). He is really not coping well with being in hospital on a ward with very ill people, the constant on again off again and the general stress is actually causing him more distress than the initial stroke. He is in the fortunate position where he could afford to pay privately but the 2 local private hospitals we have contacted have both said they will not accept patients from NHS hospitals and the NHS hospital have said it would be very unwise to discharge himself. So we are kind of stuck aand its an area none of us know anything about. Anyone any experience or advice?

Have you already seen this info from the Sroke Association?

I would call their helpline and ask them.

I don't know anything about this specific surgery, but in general private hospitals only do the easy stuff, anything complex gets referred back to NHS anyway, and it is quite right that access to the surgeons' limited time should be on the basis of most urgent clinical need rather than ability to pay. I do understand that it must be a really difficult position to be in, and hopefully the Stroke Association can be more helpful.

I think you’d struggle to find a private hospital to take this on. You could ask his surgeon if he would do this privately?

The other thing is with a private hospital, the consultant surgeon will come in and do the surgery, but there isn’t the back up at night, like there is in the NHS - so, if anything goes wrong, they could well take DH back to an NHS hospital.

@KihoBebiluPute yes I had read that info from the Stroke Association thank you, it does seem like a lot of areas of stroke recovery can be done privately but it seems the complex surgery part isn't really covered.
I totally agree that the surgeons should be dealing with the most serious/urgent cases first but as he is able and willing to pay id it would be possible getting him out of an NHS bed and off an NHS waiting list would seem worth doing.

@LeroyJenkinssss thats the next step I think, he can only have 1 visitor so my Mum is trying her best to find out what she can from the hospital but they are understandably pushed to breaking point qt the moment so any information especially about things like this is very hard to get.

I transferred from NHS to private a few years ago, but it was post emergency surgery. At the time they were very concerned about whether I had contracted any superbugs while in the NHS care so undertook tests and barrier precautions for staff coming into my room.

I would think in the current climate they might not want transfers due to risks of exposing their staff and existing patients to Covid.

It's still worth asking though as the peace and quiet of the private hospital definitely helped my recovery. I hope your father gets the treatment he needs soon and makes a speedy recovery.

You can call the surgeons secretary and ask if he takes private patients. If yes then maybe they can arrange for the op to be done privately and he stays in that hospital in a side room or the private ward if they have one. If he requires icu after his operation then a private hospital may not have those facilities. Gave you looked on the local private hospital websites to see if they do offer the op and aftercare he needs. If they do then you just contact them, they get a referral from his NHS doctor and should arrange everything with you both.