Private didn't offer the health care I needed within a viable distance from my house.
Private don't do certain things. This is because its not profitable or is extremely complex.
Private is where that teenage girl with mental health problems, who killed herself and was featured on last nights panorama, was placed. Albeit paid for by the NHS.
Private is seen as the solution to the failing of the NHS. Private is seen as better. There are so many cases that end up in court because private is NOT better. Hey look how the experience at Hinchingbrooke Hospital with private management worked out.
Most of the time where these threads suggest 'going private' the situation has got to a point where the problem has moved from a long term chronic issue to one that is turning into one where immediate treatment is needed, if not an emergency. At which point 'going private' really is an inappropriate suggest as although you might be able to get seen quicker than a long waiting list, you still need a referral and to get an appointment. You can't just rock up and get seen just like that. If you have a child in pain and can't wait, you can't wait. That means you can't wait for that private referral either.
Which is why the 'go private' comments piss me off. Not because of the finances of them. But because of the inappropriateness of them as if private is a magic solution. It doesn't enter the thought process to consider whether private is actually going to be any better. Its a lazy suggestion and helps to perpetuate the myth that private is better.
Doing this removes public pressure to support the NHS. It plays into the hands of politicians who then use it as a stick to beat the NHS with, because of the 'private = better' assumption.
There is no assessment that private IS better going on. Its just an automatic reaction which is being increasingly ingrained into our mentality. If we are paying extra for it, it must be better. Right. Right??
You know, its easy to bash the NHS. But if you've paid for the privilege of that extra treatment, is it as easy to criticise it? Are private health providers as accountable as a result? Do they always do what's in the best interest of patients or do they make unnecessary treatment because a) they get money from it b) the patient goes away 'satisfied' because something has been done - even if its potentially more harmful than the not very popular 'do nothing' option. Its something that often overrides the principles of evidence based medicine and pandering to the worried well.
Yeah its the absence of critical thinking that PISS ME RIGHT OFF.
How about supporting improving care across the board and asking the same questions of both private and public health in this country? Because BOTH are not providing the best care possible with the patient's wellbeing, the centre of that in this country imho.
Some times private is a better option. But lets we collective need to have a filter and make an assessment of that and give reasons why its appropriate in that particular case. Blanket, simplistic 'have you considered going private' one line statements are deeply, deeply unhelpful to everyone - not just posters that the comments are directed at.