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.

Also, as I stated earlier in examples one particular private hospital has a specialised cardiac lab and consultants that matches any public system (permanently staffed around clock with people who share time between the public/private systems), so I’d pick them over a public A&E for a heart attack any day, our ambo’s will happily drop you there. But sure, these places certainly don’t have chopper pads for trauma, that’s not their remit.

I'm really surprised at that. I've worked in more than one cath lab, NHS and private and they were not staffed around the clock. In private we did do 'planned' on call where the patient opted to have a procedure on a Saturday or Sunday and paid the on call costs.

Mostly we were on an 'on call' rota.

When you can get a very sick dog or cat seen immediately in London with a ‘mobile’ A&E & blood test results on your phone for an animal within minutes something is very wrong.

More & of these ££ 24/7 Vets are popping up in London & home counties. People are prepared to pay through the nose for animal emergencies yet we accept our own elderly relatives can languish in pain on plastic chairs?

if animals can be accommodated why not humans?

@User14March because most animal ailments can be treated by that one mobile person and if a condition is too rare or complex for them to treat the owner has the option of choosing euthenasia rather than getting referred to the even more expensive specialist/complex treatment options. I am sure that if we gave licences for a single practitioner to offer everything from setting broken bones, diagnosing and treating diabetes, heart and lung issues, cancers and digestive tract problems in humans and they had the option of a nice simple euthenasia injection for anything they couldn't cure then a private mobile service like this for humans would be readily available.

@YireosDodeAver Blood test results back instantly was revelatory - some parts of this model may work (?) And also people prepared to pay hundreds for pets.

I've used private GP however will only use it as a very last resort. Once you start going private you pay for everything. I recently had to pay for prescriptions for DC as they are not covered if you use a private GP. I also think it's letting the NHS off the hook.

Private providers don't normally do emergency as it's too expensive and goes against their not covering existing conditions. I personally would also worry that people would go and pay for the private and jump the queue at NHS A&E.

I once went & waited at a walk-in centre & although I could have been treated I was honest & said I’d seen my GP a month before (when asked) - who hadn’t helped - & it had escalated. Then refused point blank to help & downed tools immediately as against the rules. You can see how & why people clog up A&E.

There has to be a much better way.