Has anyone gone private for a child's ENT appointment

[Blueseudeshoes]

Posting for traffick apologies if there are other threads on this I'm just at my whits end.

My son is 3 and due to reocurring ear and throat infections has been referred to ENT by GP. This was a few months ago now and he is still unwell every few weeks, tried multiple antibiotics they work for a week or two and it's something else. Rung the hospital where he has been referred and have been told his appointment will be a 12 month wait I obviously do not want to wait this long although I understand the extreme pressure the NHS is under he's suffering and I'm worried sick and feel helpless

Has anyone went private for an ENT referral for a child? How much was it consultation, treatment etc if so?

Sorry if I've posted in the wrong place just feeling miserable and helpless seeing him suffer:(

We went private. Best thing we ever did. He diagnosed the issue in 10 minutes after NHS had failed to for 2 years. Within 3 months she was sorted and like a different child. If you’re in the midlands you need to see this man. He is utterly wonderful - so kind and lovely with the children and an amazing consultant - Mr Kuo
www.theentclinic.org/

@Emotionalds about £3k in central London.

our private ENT was brilliant, happy to recommend him. Not sure if I’m allowed to post his name on the thread?

We went through spire but the actual surgery was done in a NHS hospital as our consultant was both NHS and private practice. We got put on his NHS hospital list as a private patient because we wanted to get the surgery done ASAP but I think you can get referred back through the NHS.

I think the initial appointment was around £200-£250 but we’re lucky that we had insurance through work that covered it all.

if you’re south coast PM me and I can recommend our consultant, he is excellent.

We did, and in much less bleak times than these, so I would 100% recommend private. We spent our Xmas money on it! We had already been seen on the NHS but I didn't like the surgeon so paid privately to see the surgeon I wanted and then he moved us to his NHS caseload.
If you think it's your child's tonsils or adenoids, look carefully for signs of sleep apnoea (this doesn't have to just be completely stopping breathing, it can also be having recessions whilst asleep etc). If sleep apnoea is diagnosed then you will have no trouble getting funding for surgery. If it's persistent infections, you will have considerably more trouble getting funding for the removal

We went private, to our local private hospital with a consultant who sees kids on the NHS in our local NHS hospital. It's definitely worth checking the background of a private consultant. There were quite a few who ticked the 'does grommits' box but when you looked at what their previous experience and what they did for the NHS, it was definitely not with kids and grommits (e.g. rheinoplasty). Our local private hospital won't operate on under 3s, apparently for insurance reasons but DS was close enough to turning 3 the wait didn't matter.

It was £250 for the initial consultation and then £200 for the follow on ones. It also cost £80 for a hearing test, which DS needed 3 of, and the adenoids removal / grommits insertion was about £2k, 2 months ago.

It's absolutely been worth not waiting for the NHS for us, my son has speech delay as a consequence of glue ear related hearing loss and he's now making very rapid progress.

@carlylovespies what is a recession please? Google is only bringing up regression, and ds has never slept well enough to have a regression!

Definitely do,

I was always polite, but rang a few times to explain I was very concerned and would be keen to be seen quickly due to the impact issues we're having on family life and especially school and keeping DC safe. I gave a list of phone numbers and said that with an hour's notice we would commit to making it. This meant that we got an appointment in school holidays when they has several cancellations/no shows in one clinic (utterly shocking when I'd been in tears needing help!) As the consultant was obviously fed up of the gaps and she rang me to come as soon as we could. Once we'd been seen, we were then on regular recall and sent for tests etc so it sped everything up massively.

@Emotionalds also called a retraction. It's where the child sucks in under the ribs to breath whilst asleep. My daughter did this every night due to the size of her adenoids. It was distressing to watch, the hospital doctors couldn't believe it when I took her in and she fell asleep. It basically shows a trouble breathing which is why funding is always granted in this instance. My daughter also had recurrent ear infections, glue ear and increasingly nasty bouts of tonsillitis but it was only the sleep apnea that meant we got funding through within 24 hours. We were only waiting 6 months for the NHS surgery but this was 4 years ago

@carlylovespies thanks, I'll take a look tonight!

Yes. So glad we did.

£220 for the initial consultation (Nuffield)
£150ish for private hearing test (to decide whether to put grommets in when they take out his tonsils and adenoids)
Surgery is about £2000. We’re just waiting for a date but should be in the next couple of months.

The consultant was happy to add us to an NHS waiting list but it’s really long and we want it sorted before he starts school as he is constantly unwell and very underweight.

@ProserpinaProserpina Why is your son underweight, can I ask? Mine is also due to start school in September. This latest batch of amoxicillin, after 12 days, he still has white tonsillitis patches, swelling and strawberry tongue. Mine is also always unwell (and v underweight) and now I'm concerned about sleep apnoea too! His almost 1 year old sister is bullet proof in comparison, she gets the nursery colds but she doesn't suffer like he does. Sleeps and eats great too.

@Emotionalds it’s a combination of things I think. He has ARFID so his diet is very restricted. But he also has huge tonsils all the time so has to choose between breathing or eating IYSWIM so it’s not very appealing to eat anyway. Plus every time he gets another bout of tonsillitis (every couple of weeks) he goes off food completely.

His 2yo sister is the same as your DD. Completely robust and normal.

Not me personally but someone I know did, I'm sure they went to spire as well. The consultant they saw also worked for the NHS and agreed to do the operation on the NHS so they only had to pay for the consultation and had the op within a couple of months. Her GP refused to even refer to ENT so she had no choice.

We did, he was 4 and had bad 7 bouts of tonsillitis in 10 months but it wasn't enough for NHS (7 years ago). The dr told us every time he came in he was going to be told it needed to be more. So we went private. They still waited a few months to monitor but once they decided then they had him in quickly for grommets in, tonsils and adenoids out. I saw the final bill, it was about £600 so not as bad as I feared. He's not looked back since and has been barely sick either 👍

After waiting 18 months we went private for £250
Within 10minutes the consultant agreed surgery was required urgently
Best money spent and saved for ages to get there

Hi, yes we did after NHS refused to put grommets in. We had first consultation in March and grommets done in May. Would have been sooner if we hadn't gone on holiday. Initial visit was around £200 and operation was a bit over £2000. Cannot fault the care we had. We used Spire hospital in Leicester, but I think they have hospitals all over the country.

We had a family history of bad tonsils. My mother had hers out quite early, my father in about 1966 (aged 35).
I was constantly poorly with tonsillitis from 6 to 11, but was not given the option of a tonsillectomy as it was a "fashionable" operation in those days (late 1960s).
During the time that I was refused my operation, my parents took out private health insurance. Both my siblings had their tonsils removed privately.

@ProserpinaProserpina I need to look into ARFID more. What does it look like for your ds? Mine had allergies and reflux and a very limited diet as a result, still on a huge amount of oat milk daily (and nightly). I've never inspected his throat before when got strep a in November, so I don't know what his normal is.

Thank you all so much for your replies they have been really helpful glad to see so many of you got sorted 👏

My DD has been referred to ENT as he may have enlarged adenoids, if I pay privately for the initial assessment would I be able to get any follow up treatment on the NHS? Or is it if the assessment is private everything else will need to be private (unless I wait the year+ to be seen on the NHS)

My nephew recently had an ENT procedure done privately. Scotland.

Initial consultation was £250. They then decided to stay with that consultant and get his tonsils out in a private hospital which cost £3400.

Yes you can. Means you skip the waiting time for initial consultation. But you don't get any higher up the waiting list for surgery after that.

I went private for a consultation it cost me £240 ,i have been offered adenoid removal and tonsillotomy which i have been told is a partial removal of tonsils so much better for pain and recovery afterwards but there is a risk tonsils could grow back.
Has anyone else gone ahead with this procedure for their child?just wondering if they have what the recovery was like and if the tonsils did grow back!!

Yes was a couple of hundred, couple of weeks wait but was pre Covid. . Same consultant who we were waiting to see under the NHS. He referred him back into nhs for tonsils out.

My brother & SIL took my niece to private ENT and they were so pleased they did. My DN has been a different child. The reoccurring infections really took their toll.