Private surgery complications should not be covered by NHS?

[mantyzer]

People can pay for private medical care if they want to. But the NHS should not have to pick up the cost of botched surgery or complications. If you go private you should either be rich enough that you can pay yourself for any complications, or have insurance that will cover complications.
Currently the NHS are picking up complications caused by private medical treatment, complications which can be expensive and complex.

What if, hypothetically an older person has scrapped together enough to pay for a hip op, rather than wait years and effectively live the rest of their lives in agony. Then complications arise. Would you say that's just tough?
If people have been desperate enough to have surgery for something and it goes wrong, do we leave them to die or be debilitated if they can't pay more?

I work in private healthcare and a lot of the people coming to us are not rich, but desperate. They scrimp, borrow, save, and put themselves into tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of pounds of debt because the alternative is the NHS ridiculous wait lists. Even with private health insurance the costs can rack up very, very quickly. I don't think people realise how expensive something as simple as an X-Ray can be, nevermind a whole ass surgical procedure.

By your logic all of them should go back to the NHS for their initial procedures, pre op tests, post op etc too since they can't actually afford private, thus overloading the system even more. How would this be beneficial for the NHS exactly?

It really isn’t, the private sector is reducing wait times in the NHS and improving outcomes for patients.

Can you not understand that if patients stopped going private for joint replacements, cancer surgery, heart surgery and cataract surgery etc that NHS wait times will increase as will costs, increased wait times alone increase costs as peoples health deterioriates further.

Agree, was in hospital a few years ago, a woman next to me was in for a knee infection following ACL surgery done privately, she d been in for many weeks as not responding to antibiotics, the costs to the NHS would have been huge, turned out the private hospital theatres were dirty.

Either the individual has insurance for this sort of thing OR the private hospital is charged.

Are you not aware that private schools do not need to follow the national curriculum, are you also not aware that removing places is common practice if a childs grade falls below a certain level to reduce damage to the schools academic reputation.

yabu

by going private many people get life changing surgeries earlier that facilitate them (and possibly family carers) being able to continue paid employment thus continuing to pay ni & taxes.

Exactly this.

private care are getting overwhelmed due to long NHS waiting lists. The NHS are saving a lot because of people going private.

I do think we should have private A&E. Is there regulatory stuff that prevents it, or just no one wants to enter that as a market?

Where do you draw the line? No treatment for smokers/ex smokers, no treatment for the overweight?

Thats a different issue in regard to capacity, this thread is about who pays when private screws up.

But if NHS staff weren't working for private hospitals, they'd do more NHS work... smaller waiting lists.

I’ve took a loan out and going for a much needed operation in mid December, private as I couldn’t face waiting in pain anymore on the insanely long nhs wait list. I’m one less person on the wait list and if I have a complication which hopefully not, I would have no guilt going to see an nhs one.

A huge issue in England is a lack of facilties, my friend had her op cancelled on one occassion as two of their theatres were out of action due to faults. The entire hospital only had 20 ICU beds. We don’t have the beds, wards, equipment, or surgery suites to significantly reduce wait times in the UK.

So should we let people die in agony because they went to Turkey for a bbl? I agree its not right that the NHS is footing the bill for botched cosmetic surgeries but withholding life saving medical care is not the answer.

This will blow your mind OP - but many private hospitals are actually performing surgery on behalf of the NHS. Choose and book allows you, if available, to have surgery wherever you like, private or NHS, depending on wait times.

Absolutely, UK has fewer beds Doc's/staff & equipment per head of population than any other major EU country, we also pay less per head of population for health care than any other EU14 country too.

Cause and effect.

Then again, we have voted for a crap NHS time and time again, so ultimately, who is really to blame?

yabu. many people resort to private care because of the complete shit show the NHS is at the moment. Have you ever been in horrendous pain that would only be fixed with surgery but are faced with 2-3 year long waiting lists ? many people go into debt to afford that. Most of those going private should not have been forced to do so in the first place.

Might help if you read the OP?

She isn't talking about NHS paid for "private treatment" might blow your mind to read first before engaging keyboard.

What an ignorant and dense post..

I know that, but it is the same hospitals, with the same surgeons, it just happens to be in a different setting. So, my point being, it doesn't matter who is paying, you are getting the same treatment.

Would you say the same to people who engage in dangerous sports, who need physical damage caused by the sport to be repaired ?

The problem is that the NHS has to cover the cost of full service facilities of 24/7 doctors, ICU or A&E whereas the private sector knows that it doesn't need to provide them as they can just ring 999.

Knew someone who had gallbladder surgery at a private clinic. His surgery was low priority as he didn't really suffer major symptoms apart from when he ate a lot of fried foods. So he went private - but the operation was botched and he haemorrhaged. It turned out that there was no night doctor at all at the private clinic , just a single nurse and a couple of HCAs (saves a lot of money) - so the nurse just dialled 999 for an ambulance to ship him off to the NHS - likely cancelling the operation of someone of much higher priority who had been waiting longer.

Yeah, that isn’t something I ever voted for when I lived in the UK, those of us who didn’t vote conservative are not to blame.

No, this crosses boundaries. Why not stop risky activities like running and trampolines, they lead to injuries and cost the NHS money! No one need to run a marathon, but people need life saving surgeries they pay for themselves.

Or we could, you know, properly fund the NHS so people aren't forced to go private.

And fund schools so people fight need yo go private.

Oh, wait.....

But if NHS staff weren't working for private hospitals, they'd do more NHS work... smaller waiting lists

They would not, they do private work as well as their NHS work, not instead of.

These threads are amazing, most of us are paying privately for dentist, optician and hearing related issues, well I am. in the last 2 years ive spent £2k on hearing aids,£1,600 at the dentist and £500 on glasses

just about a year ago I began suffering some pain in Groin area after visiting the GP was told a muscle was inflamed use anti inflammatory's and here is a prescription of stomach tablets. after waiting 11 months, after numerous cancellations an ultrasound tells them I have a hernia, dr say we will refer you to consultant but be aware that waiting list times are long, I had it done privately yesterday 3 weeks after a phone appointment with GP.

I can afford it if I forgo a holiday this year