...about private healthcare?

[Bebepoor]

DD needs to see a consultant. There’s an NHS waiting list of 16 weeks to get an appointment which could then be a further 16 weeks away. Or we could pay £250 for a consultation next week with the same woman privately.

I am extremely uneasy about private healthcare but I’m finding it hard to stay principled when it’s my DD.

More of a WWYD I suppose.

Why are you uneasy about private healthcare? It doesn’t “take doctors away from the NHS” - far from it, in the UK they used to have to offer their trusts extra sessions before they could use their free time for private work. All the private work I do is in my own time, I wouldn’t be doing more work in the public hospital if I didn’t have a private list, I’d be out walking / cycling / going to boys’ school things.

If you want to see the consultant sooner and you’re prepared to pay for that, then pay and see her next week. People using private healthcare take some of the strain from the NHS, it would collapse under the extra burden if all private centres closed overnight.

It depends. If she is suffering or it will lead to much quicker treatment then do it. I would however offer some caution. I saw a consultant privately and discovered that because the initial consultation was private I would then have to pay for the scans that were recommended. In some ways I don't regret it because the consultant was excellent and at elast I wasn't worrying for months. However, if you think she will need lots of onward treatment then it may be better to wait.

I did it as the waiting list to see the consultant on the NHS would have pushed back treatment for ds's eyes by months. I paid, and feel no guilt whatsoever.

I don't understand why people should be feeling guilty

You are paying for a service and freeing up nhs services for others. Is it because others can’t afford it? We have GOSH on our charity list.

I don't feel any guilt whatsoever. But some people feel an inherent guilt about buying healthcare privilege that other people can't afford. They think it's morally wrong and spout on about it often, criticising those who use it, bemoaning its very existence. Until they themselves need it, then it's ace.

Having just spent 4 months being stuffed around by the nhs with last minute appointment cancellations, lost referrals and more, I've given up for my eldest and gone private. Financially hard and sure, not what I'd prefer, but I need to put her first. What if you go through the huge wait and then her appointment gets cancelled for weeks longer? Happened to us...

Im permanently disabled due to long waitlists. We are conditioned not to be proactive about healthcare because it is somehow "selfish". My health is more important than my other spending priorities, and a belief that if we wait patiently it will all be fine is naive.

my daughter would have had a permanent disability if we had not gone for private physio when she dislocated her knee.

Went to A+E, got it put back in, had xrays, kept popping out, was braced, told to keep brace on til urgent physio appointment - waited 5 days, rang - not in system, put in system -

went to see a private physio as a stopgap - advice we were given was wrong, out of brace, into an adjustable one, exercises given, returned every 4 days for 6 weeks.

After that SIX weeks - appointment came through for consultant - 4 weeks later! followed 2 days later by appointment for NHS physio - 2 weeks later.

Saw consultant and her knee was good. Told we'd done the right thing and that her knee and leg would have been all wrong - forever - if we had followed A+E advice.

I genuinely don't get the "moral" argument. If nobody was going private, surely the wait would be even longer for everybody, wouldn't it?

Urubu - yes that is true, but I think the 'moral' argument is that people object the private medicine and say it's so unfair etc. but then use it if they need it.
The same happens with private education.

Yes. A bit like, if everyone currently in private education descended on the state schools, there would be chaos.

But some don't like to see others buying preferential treatment in important areas such as education and healthcare and there is an argument in healthcare that the private system takes personnel away from the nhs.

People without healthcare insurance who just buy an initial consultation often also do so in the hope of jumping the queue for nhs treatment, which some find unfair.

Can you afford the scans and biopsies privately too? We have private healthcare insurance and use it when required. My view is that we are saving the NHS money so I don’t feel bad about it.

I would however feel morally wrong to pay for one appointment and hope then to slot back into the NHS and jump the queue. That seems off to me.

You're preaching to the choir haribo ive already said I support and use private healthcare

Though obviously not just talking about consultants when referring to personnel

Go for it. but be aware that any tests will also be private and if they recommend meds that aren't on the NHS formulary you may have to pay for those too.

Go private, I don't understand why it's even a question if you have the money and the means.

I love the NHS and a lot of family members are nurses / health care assistants and one GP. BUT, I also completely came off the rails about 5 years ago with panic attacks / anxiety and depression. If it wasn't for my private healthcare I really don't know where I would be now.

Go private - we do even to see a GP if I think we need it and I can't get an appointment.

The NHS isn’t free, we’re all paying for it

Many people are not paying for it at all, at least nowhere near the amoun to cover what they get out of it. Most people, in fact.

DH sees patients for a private consultation, then if they have no insurance and can’t afford to pay for their investigations or treatment themselves, he refers them for whatever tests/ treatment they need on the NHS.
Well, Missy, your DH might do so (he must have a special arrangement with his NHS hospital which others do not or the powers that be have not noticed)but I'm a medical secretary in Central London private practice and have been temping for many different consultants for decades - I don't know any that can nowadays move patients directly over to the NHS for tests without them having to have a formal new patient appointment in the NHS first even if they have already seen the consultant initially privately. It is common practice for any NHS patients wanting a private initial consultation to be informed that they are welcome to come for one but it will not make any difference to the wait for NHS tests/treatment as they will have to adhere to the NHS requirements of referral for those. It all tightened up a few years ago. It does seem really unfair to me that out of two or more patients that simultaneously have conditions that require equally urgent tests, if one can afford a consultation privately, they can then queue jump into an NHS test/scan ahead of the other person who could not and will have to wait months. That is why most NHS hospitals would not countenance it and most consultants I work for do not do that.

mrsjoy I can assure you DH has no “special arrangement” with anybody. What he does it just what happens in our County, we only have one private hospital so you can’t really compare it to London. And our outpatient clinics have long enough waiting times without adding patients to them that have already had a private consultation. The only time you might do that is if they were going to be under a different Consultant in the NHS. Otherwise it’s a waste of an appointment.