NHS and private health care

[Stumpted88]

I am fortunate enough to have private health care at work, just signed up, it includes;

A phone line to speak to a gp 24 hours a day
A mental health crisis team
Self referral, post a phone call to the insurance agency, for physio, chiropractors, osteopaths (both unavailable on the nhs currently), feet doctors (I forget their actual names) and a bunch of minor ailment treatments that you would wait an age on the nhs

It costs my large company around £27 a month to insure me. I also am a higher rate tax payer, and pay around £500-600 a month in NI.

It occurred to me today that if employers of a certain size have an opt in to enrol all staff on private health care, akin to the pension scheme, (I also pay tax on the £27) this would alleviate a massive burden on the NHS?

Not sure if the private sector could cope logistically, but in an ideal world and they could, would a hybrid of socially funded and privately funded healthcare work?

Personally I think it would work positively in the short term, as waiting lists would be reduced dramatically over night, long term, I am not so sure?

It really isn't any more.
I worked in the NHS for nearly 40 years, as have most of my family.
Choose and book is a complete nightmare and waste of time and money.
I am now seriously ill and trying to work my way through my bucket list.
My life is a shambles of cancelled appointments, impossible to book appointments, appointments booked with the wrong specialists.
Treatments that would improve my quality of life are not allowed until I can no longer walk or my breathing is compromised.
If I try to book a few days away around my appointments I can guarantee that everything will be cancelled or changed at the last minute.
The staff do their best and the frontline staff are wonderful. But the structure is crumbling and it is only going to get worse.
I am grateful for the care I get, but I want to visit my children, get a bit of sunshine, not spend my life trying to sort out admin problems and incorrect prescriptions.

endofthelinefinally whilst you might have experienced difficulties, the vast majority get very good healthcare. FFT suggests an England average of 87% of inpatients are very happy with care and treatment. Maternity is about the same at 86% currently.

In many trusts waiting lists are minimal and in a good number there are very short waits in emergency departments. That is not to say there are no problems but one needs to consider the whole health and social care economy to understand the issues causality. In many cases it’s around commissioning with CCGs imposing restrictions and cutting treatments because they have no money. There is some incredible work going on around complex pathways where care goes across numerous providers to ensure patients are treated appropriately.

Ask yourself why there is no private A&E system?

Agree with previous posters on this due to 3 main factors:

1. Chronic disease/Frailty/Ageing population/cuts in provision of social care cause the biggest burden for the NHS, not relatively young, healthy, working people. Yes there is a small benefit to the NHS if people who can afford it access things like physio, podiatry etc privately but it's a drop in the ocean

1. Private health are in the UK is only equipped for very straightforward 'easy' cases. As soon as there are complications or there is a chronic problem you would end up back in the NHS as the private system isn't equipped or resourced to manage more complex cases

I also get a BUPA cover from work but don't think it's adequate to meet people's needs for everything they may need. BUPA ends up referring many cases back to the NHS, so unless BUPA starts offering something that is fully fit for purpose for everyone, unfortunately, it can't be a fully viable alternative.

You seem to forget that private insurance consigns anybody with a "pre-existing condition" to the dustbin and will not cover them. It's a shit system.

Not all do, Benenden doesn’t. Its one of the cheapest private providers, originally set up for railway workers, extended to postal, fire fighters and now anyone can join. Its less than £2 a week. Of course you aren’t going to get a heart transplant on it but your certainly going to get your hip replaced or knee cartilage done rather than waiting.

Our private insurance system does not cover pre-existing conditions for 12mths from date of joining. After that they have to fund pre-existing conditions. The system is nationally regulated so they have no choice in this regard. It’s not like life insurance, you pay a flat fee for the tier that you want irrespective of what health issues you do or do not have.

I think the NHS is pretty good for the acute stuff.
I spend a fair bit of time visiting the local walk in and occasionally the fracture clinic. Every time I fall over I break something. In spite of the 3 hour waiting times the care has been good.
But I know I am facing a pretty awful progression and death with little or no care. It frightens me. It occupies quite a lot of my thoughts.
There is no NHS or social funding for people with progressive disease or disability.
You only have to read MN to see how badly the chronically sick and disabled are treated.

sashh
The whole point was I phoned the helpline provided by the private cover, which unlike 111 puts you straight through to a Dr. He gave advice and the next day on his advice we visited the GP. Private cover doesn't give you a private GP.

I was pointing out that the private helpline was very good.

• I am fortunate enough to have private health care at work, just signed up, it includes;

A phone line to speak to a gp 24 hours a day*

Personally I think mandating that employers pay for healthcare is a terrible idea. It's one of the worst things about the USA's system, IMO. All it does is reduce job mobility. Personally I'd rather the extra £27pm in my pocket so I can make decisions that suit me, or in the tax man's pocket, to better fund the NHS.

Mind you, I think the same about mandatory pensions. I have a great pension scheme through work, but I'd rather have a substantial payrise and the freedom to decide what % of my income to save/invest myself, than have a large fixed contribution from my employer.

@SD1978 You activate your private insurance in public hospitals- it gets you nothing over the public patients, except a choice in surgeon.

I didn't have to pay for TV hire! I think it was $4/day for public patients.

Also was moved to a single room when one became available.