AIBU to ask how A&E works in private hospitals?

[ComingUpTrumps]

This is a really simplistic question, so sorry in advance! I'm just interested, and wasn't sure where to ask it.

I was watching the last episode of Trust Me (about a nurse posing as an A&E doctor) last night, and in the episode they had a few patients brought in with chemical and thermal burns after an accident at a factory or something similar. It was really difficult to watch and quite upsetting.

Anyway, this got me thinking about the NHS, and how with different governments, feelings about the NHS can vary. So for example, under the last Labour government, the NHS was seen as fairly important and was prioritised by the government.

However, under the last couple of Conservative governments, there seems to be a feeling that the Conservatives are pushing for people to use private healthcare rather than using the NHS. My question is: AIBU to ask how A and E works in private hospitals? Is it the same sort of thing as in the NHS?

They don't tend to have a and e departments

I don't know any private hospitals that have a and e. I had ds at the Portland and it was made very clear that if you have certain complications you'll be ambulanced straight to a nhs hospital.

Does A&E make money ?

No ?

Then you won't have it in private hospitals.

They don't have a and e at private hospitals usually, do you know one that does? Highly unusual

Under the last Labour Government they were privatising bits of the NHS off.

Private hospitals in the UK don't have A&E, or at least none of the ones round here do.

My elderly parents with multiple health conditions still have private health insurance with my father's pension, so when they need something elective or planned done, they sometimes use one of the private hospitals near here.

But whenever one of them has a stroke, heart attack, pneumonia or a fall, it is the NHS which picks them up and sorts them out.

Private hospitals don't have A & E.

Like most of the private sector, they turn to the public sector when things get tricky.

So if, for example, the NHS was discontinued or had its funding drastically reduced, where would patients go for A&E treatment?

Just wanted to add - if private health insurance had to cover emergencies or intensive care, premiums would rocket - maybe not to American levels, but probably many times what you pay now for Bupa coverage.

They'd still go to a and e. Only profitable work will be made private.

As monkeysox said, very few private hospitals have A&E departments at all and if they are do they are usually for less serious incidents like cuts that need stitching, minor concussion, burns, x-rays for suspected breaks - there's one near Manchester and I believe they charge for a flat fee for consultation and then for any subsequent treatment like stitches, casts, x-rays, wound dressings etc. More like a Minor Injuries walk-in clinic really.

When the one in Manchester opened they actually made a big point of saying that in a serious emergency you absolutely must take the patient to ordinary NHS A&E because the private hospital won't have the facilities or the staff to treat you and you'd just be delaying getting life-saving treatment.

There is no private A&E, really. Even in London.

Which is why I have had to inwardly suppress my murderous thoughts in the middle of the night. When I have had to listen to middle class parents angsting about whether or not they should permit the NHS to deal with their precious darlings life threatening condition after I've arrived in the hospital having been called in from my bed. As there really isn't an other option and if you were going to take it why bother coming to the NHS at all. (This has happened twice recently).

On both occasions my consultant colleagues and I all have private practising rights. Just because the built environment was NHS (no carpet, less good catering) and you don't get a bill at the end doesn't mean the medical care is the worse. In fact the NHS is potentially better as the NHS hospital has more modern theatre kit and our theatre staff deal with life threatening stuff fairly frequently.

If the NHS was discontinued, hospitals would turn private and everyone would have to pay, even for A&E treatment. In the worst case scenario, it could become like the US where a trip to A&E can bankrupt you if you don't have insurance:

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/how-much-does-it-cost-to-go-to-the-er/273599/

From what I've understood, presumably the NHS will have to continue to exist in some form or another, even if its services are really reduced. Even if most of the NHS is stripped down over the next few years (however long that is), we'll still always need NHS A&E departments.

I think I have heard of someone being taken to a private A&E in London recently, but I may be wrong. In any case, that's probably an exception.

So if, for example, the NHS was discontinued or had its funding drastically reduced, where would patients go for A&E treatment?

They would probably just turn up at hospitals and it would be up to hospitals to what extent if any they treated patients they didn't believe were going to pay them. I believe that in the USA hospitals do have to treat life-threatening emergencies by law, but all they have to do is stabilise the patients so the current crisis doesn't kill them, not solve any underlying problem that may have generated the emergency.

Just because the built environment was NHS (no carpet, less good catering) and you don't get a bill at the end doesn't mean the medical care is the worse. In fact the NHS is potentially better as the NHS hospital has more modern theatre kit and our theatre staff deal with life threatening stuff fairly frequently.*

That's absolutely the same way I see it Opiniated. (I'm not a doctor by the way, just an interested patient :) )

Opinionated

In the worst case scenario, it could become like the US where a trip to A&E can bankrupt you if you don't have insurance

That's so awful exexpat :(

Back in the 80s, there was a "Quincy" around this topic.

The idea in the US used to be (and may still be) that accident victims are taken to "country general" for life-preserving treatment. But as soon as they are "stable" (which does not meant "better") they can be discharged to their insurers care. Or just fuck off if they have no insurance.

The episode centred around a country general that was falsifying records to hide the fact they were discharging uninsured patients illegally.

It's worth noting that Quincys professional interest was as a pathologist ...

I can see Jeremy Hunt watching that, thinking "what a great idea" ...

there aren't any, this is good. The private sector does acute care very very badly

In france you pay to see your GP even

From what I've understood, presumably the NHS will have to continue to exist in some form or another, even if its services are really reduced.

What reason do you have to think the scope of NHS services will be reduced? Can you list anything they've done in the past that will be out of scope in future?

Not entirely relevant but wouldn't the NHS still have to provide free treatment to children?

Perhaps this would happen - I can see Britain doing that - Emergency care etc being free for Under 16's