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.

Next, you will be banning fat people, smokers, alcoholics etc etc. You seem like a bit of a nasty person.

What do you suggest we do with people who need urgent medical attention due to botched surgery then? Just leave them to suffer? Die?

If someone’s got a medical need, they are seen by the nhs in this country, regardless of the need for surgery. If we pull at this thread, where does it end? No help for anything self inflicted? Smokers? Bad diets? Car crashes? Sports accidents?

people like you doubtless have voted to under fund the NHS to protect your triple lock pensions or have tax cuts?

Get doubting. I’ve voted Labour all my life.

How many people are forced to pay for private surgeries because the NHS is no longer proving them or the waits are too long.

A friend's Mum was told ten years for a hip replacement and was in such agonising pain that she couldn't walk and likely would have topped herself before then (her words).

If the surgery had been botched what should have happened to her. Left to die? Which she practically was by being denied the surgery Inna timely manner

It's not all boob and nose jobs, though there are medical reasons to have both. And a medical emergency caused by one is still a medical emergency.

Wait, so – if someone was experiencing life-threatening complications following cosmetic surgery, you believe they should be refused emergency healthcare at A&E?

Not really. It's more similar to parents being forced to pay for education because the dept of education is full. And shit.

You want to start putting conditions on universal healthcare.... you're on a very slippery slope.

Presumably in an employed NHS position there are set contracted hours for the role.

Exactly, the NHS was shit under Blair/Brown, i couldn't get an NHS dentist for my kids, let alone me and Ben Bradshaw Health Sec couldn't care less, Labours Dental contract just made matters worse.

Voting Lab or Con hasn't given the UK an NHS on par with comparable European countries, even if it was slightly better under Labour, when the LDs suggested a 1% tax increase for the NHS we all screamed NO!!!!!!

We ve got the NHS you and everyone else voted for.

I could see that working. I needed medical treatment after a car accident and I was surprised my insurance had to pay it (I think they reclaimed it from the other party.) Would work much the same I suppose.

Are you suggesting that those who pay for private health care/insurance should also stop paying national insurance, giving that they can't access the NHS in your scenario?

Private surgery saves the nhs billions, my own five spinal surges saved the nhs hundreds of thousands. If there is any subsidy it is more opposite to what you say. I am not rich, just have good cover from work, like many others

On the other hand I lost all my teeth due to dentinogenesis imperfecta and had implants put in by the NHS. They are now coming to the end of their lifespan and the NHS won't replace them. I have to go privately which I'm
not in a position to do...basically I won't be able to eat or speak properly soon.

OP this argument is just awful and it shows no understanding of healthcare resources. The NHS is free for all who need it, it comes without judgement. Just because someone can afford to scrimp together their life savings for a knee replacement for instance so that they can get back to work and earn a living and not be in constant pain, does not mean we should leave their leg to rot to the point an amputation is required because a surgical infection has set in and by your logic they should seek the funds themselves to treat it.

Whether you like it or not people end up needing health care, that person isn't always a premature baby completely innocent, it might be a joy riding drunk teenager or someone who has made poor lifestyle choices and had a heart attack as a result. As human beings we have no right to consider one person worthy of life saving treatment and another as unworthy.

I recognise that your main argument is that you feel those having cosmetic surgery, shouldn't be able to access treatment. Well count yourself lucky that you were born into a body that you're comfortable living in. Well done you.

And by OPs logic this would be cosmetic and if you got an infection you should be allowed to die if you can't afford to treat it. It's a stupid argument that only someone who is in no need would make.

I don’t agree with you , I am going through IVF right now and needed hysteroscopy to remove polyps £3000 , nhs wait for this was 2 years but I went private after 1 year old waiting and paid out of pocket due to my age . Private hospital didn’t do a good job and the polyp grew back in few weeks as partially removed only . So my nhs ivf clinic reffered me fast track to nhs to get it sorted again for free as I was on nhs list 2 years ago and they removed me from waiting list after they found out I had private treatment . But they didn’t expect the problem to be there again after few months so they put my back on the waiting list and I got seen in 1 month , previously I waited 1 year for the nhs treatment hoping it would be very soon until I decided to go private because they couldn’t give me the waiting time list and I didn’t want to wait any longer as I’m in my 30’s . I don’t have another 3000£ to spend on private care when they didn’t do it right the first time when they should have done .

I kind of agree that you should have to pay for the entire treatment course and routine complications. Otherwise anyone with enough money gets to skip part of the queue. Those who can’t pay anything have to wait even longer which isn’t fair.

DM broke her foot, NHS set it wrong she had to pay privately to get it broken and reset. She didn’t get it free because the NHS screwed it up. She didn’t walk for almost two years as the NHS were adamant it was fine! (It wasn’t). She told to cross the ‘pain barrier’. Bloody shocking,

So if you smoke /drink then you are more likely to get cancer/heart disease. You shouldn’t be treated, you knew the risk. Pay privately.

YABU
There would be unnecessary suffering, whether someone has foolishly decided to get a Brazilian butt lift in Turkey is beside the point, NHS only sort the infection, they don’t repeat the surgery.

There needs to be more education around getting this type of surgery, some people go abroad with no complications.

I saw an argument on X the other day about how when people go private and thus jump the queue, that they are making the queue longer because the GPs that work on the NHS also work privately. GPs work to a contract and do the hours asked of them, so I don't see how this is true.

Blame the Tories! There’s money, trust me. 🤦🏼‍♀️Just not where it should be!

So how much is it costing OP? How much money is being spent by the NHS on "botched" surgeries in the private sector?

How much money is being paid out by the NHS to cover the costs of malpractice and poor treatment within the NHS?

How much is being saved by the NHS due to increasing numbers of people spending life savings or fund raising to go private because the NHS isn't there for them?

What are you basing your assumptions on?

I completely disagree we need to be encouraging more people to have treatment privately. NHS waiting lists are unbelievably long and we do need to utilise the private sector to its maximum to bring them down.
When someone has their hip replacement privately they save the tax payer thousands, we should be applauding them.

I would favour an Australian approach of tax rebates for holding private healthcare insurance or a tax penalty for not holding a policy if you view it the other way.

The logic doesn't hold

There are 20 people ahead of you in the NHS queue. 6 of them decide to go private. One has some complications that need to be treated on the NHS. The other 5 are fine. The queue ahead of you is now 25% shorter, not 5% longer.

My DH had to go privately for surgery on his back. Ended up in an NHS hospital for 6 weeks with serious complications (sepsis and pulmonary embolisms). His surgeon came to visit him in hospital and said he'd never seen anyone that unlucky. Couldn't fault the care in the hospital, he was in for 2 nights, had physio etc there.

The alternative wasn't an NHS surgery though. The GP was put him on a waiting list for physio. 8 months waiting list for a first consultation with the physio! Meanwhile DH was in so much pain he couldn't even sit straight, let alone work. He wouldn't even get referred for an X-ray. I thank the lucky stars that I had private medical insurance at the time.

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.

My one experience of going privately via insurance, they did cover complications. The op cost about 7k but the authorised amount was something like 200k in case of complications.

The NHS is there to provide care which is free at the point of use. No ifs or buts. You get into very dangerous territory when you start deciding some treatments aren’t justified.