Would you pay for private A and E?

[Albertslittletie]

I’ve had three horrible A and E visits that have left me with PTSD and health anxiety. I’ve got private insurance with BUPA but I was thinking, if there was a way to pay for private A and E, I would.

i hate myself for thinking that because im just falling into the Tory plan but is the NHS ever going to recover? I don’t know.

would private hospitals take the strain and wait times down for regular hospitals or would they just start reducing funding for them and make them shit and then healthcare becomes worse for those who can’t afford it?

curious for thoughts.

Haven't read the whole thread but where on earth are the staff going to come from and the buildings ? Where I live there is no private health care nearby .Not everywhere is like London with dozens of hospitals .
Apart from the fact that private doesn't even have the equipment . Remember Prince Philip going in an ambulance to an NHS hospital for some sort maybe ct scan or x-ray of some sort ?

I can remember Prince Charles, as he was then, breaking his arm falling from a horse and waiting in A&E. I've also seen lots of photos on X - Dan Walker & Jeremy Hunt spring to mind - of well known people in A&E.

I would for my son, non verbal autistic and if we ever have to go to a&e it's just horrendous. Absolute last resort but it's hard to know when you have a child who can't tell you what's wrong.

My last visit was just awful. Unbelievable really.

Problem is you have no idea what the final costs might be so you’d need good insurance prepared to pay for it. You might go in and have your obs done and be told you’re fine. Or you might need a blood test, then a ct scan, then an x-ray, then an ecg, then medication. Could get real expensive, real fast.

its all very well saying that emergency care is what the nhs excels in but in my recent experience I’d say not always. My Dd was sent away from a&e twice with blood clots in her lungs after presenting with chest pain and shortness of breath. Was picked up on the third visit two months later when this time someone actually did the blood test they should have done on the first visit. So yes, if I had infinite money or insurance I’d go private and hope for better care.

There are a lot of services that would work for a&e privately.

I had an accidental overdose of tablets which was really stupid of me, and I was told I had to go a&e - I was on a drip and vomiting constantly, had blood and urine test and monitored. This didn't need a complex multidisciplinary team

How much you be willing to pay? It's likely to be VERY expensive. Think a private dentist or vet bill, but more.

When I was diagnosed with cancer a few yrs ago , my sons friend from US said it's good you wont have to sell the house for treatment . One of the no 5 causes for bankruptcies in US .

Famous people are dealt with in the same way as anyone else ime.

Coming from a veterinary perspective, it’s the other way around where all care is effectively private. In out of hours clinics there are specially trained out of hours vets who sit up all night waiting for a call and you will be seen quickly, but even in a large referral centre, you may not see a specialist surgeon/cardiologist etc until the next day or require transfer to a vet school or similar. And you will have to pay ££££ for all of that (or your insurance will).

Despite the eye watering costs to owners, these services are very expensive to run and require a sufficient emergency caseload to be economically viable. That is also considering that in veterinary care, the equivalent to out of hours GP service also now tends to run through these bigger emergency centres.

in human medicine where the majority of patients are nhs, it would have to be a really large city to provide the footfall needed to run a private emergency department. Particularly as people with means to pay for private healthcare are less likely to present in crisis like the average nhs patient (many of whom do present in a&e with complications of underlying/ongoing health problems, particularly in later age). Plus, if you needed ICU or neurosurgery for example, you would be need an nhs hospital for that anyway.

If you’re acutely unwell and about to die, A&E is still pretty good especially if you’ve got access to a specialist trauma or cardiac provision or need a high dependency bed.

If you’re old, sick and need a bed on a general ward then you’re likely to see the NHS at its worst. If I was elderly I’d 100% pay for a service that could deal with falls and a general geriatric service that would avoid the need to be on a trolley for 3 days deconditioning and then being stuck on a ward waiting for social care.

No, I‘d rather pay substantially more tax and fix the system for everyone.

F*cking hell

What a terrifying idea

No I bloody wouldn't !!

Vote for a change of government instead!

If you’re acutely unwell and about to die, A&E is still pretty good especially if you’ve got access to a specialist trauma or cardiac provision or need a high dependency bed.

I quite agree. But it’s the patients who aren’t quite that ill, but are still in a fairly bad way, who need a better system

Nope. I wouldn't trust them to have anywhere near enough experience.

The way insurance works is that more people pay than use a service or pay out. I can't see a private A&E working in the UK without premiums being high to the point of unaffordable.

I can't see it being popular if it's used a fast track to NHS services at the expense of those who can't afford it either.

I don't really understand how a private ED could work - you might need a gynae / stroke / respiratory / urology / spinal / burns / ICU specialist team to be called down and then transferred on to - do private hospitals have all these specialities and wards? Do they have all these doctors hanging around? Or are you just hoping the ED consultant can do everything in ED and send you home? That sounds like a private minor injuries, not ED. ED is the starting point but they have a huge team throughout the hospital that makes the care possible.

I would.
I'm too old now (mid 50s) to be able to afford private health insurance. Recently paid £400 for an mri scan of my back. Lucky to have a good GP, but if there was a private alternative for the low grade stuff people end up in A and E for of a weekend, I'd pay.
I

I would 100% pay for a private A&E

It’s been diagnosed and I have received therapy for it. Perhaps YOU do not realise what the meaning is?

The ones on London (HCA) are NOT A&E. They are urgent care only.

They don't accept anyone with a life threatening condition and are very clear that if you have a life threatening condition you need to go to an NHS A&E.

Even their acute care, private ambulance service only accepts people via GP referral who are "urgent but non-emergency"

Their website is very clear.

www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/our-services/urgent-care

www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/our-services/specialties/acute-admissions-service

Yes I would happily pay for this if it ever became available

Yes 100% and have thought this a lot before

Private A&E will only work.at very large volume funded by enormous insurance premiums which will be much larger than the tax increases that could properly fund and fix the NHS. When you say you would happily pay for a private service are you aware that people who use a private A&E in the USA without insurance will sometimes end up owing many thousands of dollars, possibly tens or hundreds of thousands, losing their home if they had one and becoming utterly destitute, due to some technicality of policy smallprint that wasn't clear at the point when treatment was needed. I would far rather we all funded a service that is free at point of use than have some unlucky individuals losing everything they have due to an unfortunate accident.

You can't have a small-scale A&E. It needs to be part of a major hospital with all other specialists on hand when needed and beds for longer term admissions. Private A&E will only exist with the whole NHS dismantled.

I completely agree that if there was an option to just pay more tax to properly fund and restore the NHS I would and I’m hoping a Labour victory may undo some of the damage but … how long will that take and how much improvement will there be? Doesn’t appear to be any quick wins to be found.

like PP have said - A and E is the best place for trauma but those who are sick and are at risk of getting sicker are the ones suffering. I spent 12 hours in the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life with an infected gallbladder. The realisation that…. No one is going to help you. That you have to endure agony and at the mercy of a system to have no control of? Terrifying.
Looking up the private London care centres they seem to cover quite a few ailments - would need sturdy insurance premiums to cover the treatment no doubt.

Is there one in London?