Luckily I've been very healthy all my life and never needed any hospitalisation or serious medical treatment beyond being seen by a GP or urgent care centre for sprains and cuts. I've been hearing so much though about the huge NHS waiting lists and patients unable to access timely care for serious conditions. I haven't heard any such stories from my close friends here but that might be because we're all relatively young and healthy. I know I will sound naive but can I ask how bad the unavailability of timely treatment and appointments with senior doctors/surgeons really is, especially in London and other big cities? I need a reality check in comparison to the situation below.
I was just talking to a friend in a major city in America with excellent hospitals. Her parent (age 60) has been having major health issues. My friend described her parent's treatment timeline and it didn't sound great at all:
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Parent went to hospital ER (A&E) with severe abdominal pain and fever and not sent home till 20 HOURS later. Blood tests were done quickly but huge wait time for scans. Scans detected abnormality, was referred to surgeon for followup after 2-3 days.
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Surgeon determined surgery was needed to remove and diagnose the abnormality (suspected cancer); best done as early as possible but not immediately life-threatening; surgery scheduled 2-3 weeks later (after surgeon returned from holiday).
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Surgery done and biopsy confirmed an aggressive form of cancer, referred to oncologist. But post-surgery complications arose and another surgery had to be scheduled (recovery from this was very slow), delaying cancer treatment by several months. In the meantime at home after the second surgery, the patient had no way to directly contact the surgeon or an equivalent expert when issues arose. Phone calls would be returned by a member of the surgeon's team, usually a very junior doctor or nurse who only gave general (and often contradictory) advice and wasn't specifically acquainted with the surgical details of the patient's case.
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When patient finally recovered from two surgeries and was ready to start chemotherapy, hospital informed patient that an outpatient surgery was needed to insert a chest port catheter for chemo. The earliest date available for this port insertion surgery was one month later, delaying chemo again. PET scan booking was also extremely limited and had to be scheduled many weeks in advance.
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Chemo sessions running on schedule but the oncologist rarely sees patient; the nurse manages everything.
All of this was at one of the best hospitals in America. I imagine NHS treatment timeline without going private might be similar or worse, but how does this compare to the private insurance route in the UK, especially in big cities like London?