Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Private surgery complications should not be covered by NHS?

149 replies

mantyzer · 01/12/2023 16:00

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.

OP posts:
SarahShorty · 01/12/2023 20:18

You don't have to be rich to have access to private healthcare, by the way. Some people get it through work, others pick out insurance themselves and have it tailored to their specific needs. It does cost a tiny bit more for women given the extra plumbing they have and thus more to go wrong. Otherwise it's very affordable as long as the cover matches your needs, no more and no less.

BB00p · 01/12/2023 20:19

I had ivf privately which went badly wrong. I ended up on high dependency. Why should I have paid for that when others get IVF on the nhs?

starlightcan · 01/12/2023 20:26

BB00p · 01/12/2023 20:19

I had ivf privately which went badly wrong. I ended up on high dependency. Why should I have paid for that when others get IVF on the nhs?

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. May I ask what went wrong? Completely understand if you’d rather not answer.

starlightcan · 01/12/2023 20:27

SarahShorty · 01/12/2023 20:18

You don't have to be rich to have access to private healthcare, by the way. Some people get it through work, others pick out insurance themselves and have it tailored to their specific needs. It does cost a tiny bit more for women given the extra plumbing they have and thus more to go wrong. Otherwise it's very affordable as long as the cover matches your needs, no more and no less.

Extra plumbing?!

BB00p · 01/12/2023 20:30

starlightcan

OHSS

CaravaggiosCat · 01/12/2023 20:30

enchantedsquirrelwood · 01/12/2023 17:30

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.

And some of us work solely in the Private sector....

SarahShorty · 01/12/2023 20:30

starlightcan · 01/12/2023 20:27

Extra plumbing?!

Show quote history

Yes, extra plumbing. A woman has a whole reproductive system to carry and birth babies with. Men do not.

AllAroundMyCat · 01/12/2023 20:31

glossypeach · 01/12/2023 16:40

Cosmetic surgery - no
surgery needed for someone’s health - yes

I agree.

starlightcan · 01/12/2023 20:31

BB00p · 01/12/2023 20:30

starlightcan

OHSS

Thanks. Hope you were able to make a swift recovery

drowninginsunshine · 01/12/2023 20:32

mantyzer · 01/12/2023 16:34

@Simonjt But the NHS is subsidising private healthcare. Why should private hospitals be allowed not to have the facilities to deal with emergencies during surgery and just transfer to the NHS?

We could argue that people paying private are saving the NHS therefore YOU money. Obviously far more successful surgery is taking place privately thus saving the nhs much much more money than botched surgeries requiring nhs to fix them.

drowninginsunshine · 01/12/2023 20:34

glossypeach · 01/12/2023 16:40

Cosmetic surgery - no
surgery needed for someone’s health - yes

So someone with botched cosmetic surgery would just die under your plan.

Atethehalloweenchocs · 01/12/2023 20:39

I used to think this was a reasonable stance, and I still struggle with people who get cosmetic procedures done and need to be fixed. But after years of trying to get my GPs to take my recurring, debilitating bronchitis seriously, I am thinking of paying to go private for the first time. It breaks my heart, but I cannot live with the level of disruption it is causing and the fact that my doctors dont seem to give a fuck about my health.

neilyoungismyhero · 01/12/2023 20:40

I went private for a cataract procedure because I just couldn't wait for my nhs appointment- I was driving for my job. It cost me 2k which I paid for via their finance scheme. As a result I freed up that space for someone who couldn't afford to go private at all.
If I had had any serious after issues which the eye hospital couldn't deal with I would have expected the NHS to step back in.

scoobydoo1971 · 01/12/2023 20:59

Disagree 100%. I had a tumour removed on the NHS a few years ago. Histology came back (wrongly) as benign. It regrew in 2022, and kept growing. Blinded by the prior report on the tumour, the GP put me on the general wait list for the local hospital, and not a cancer 14 day pathway. He actually tried to fob me off that it was scar-tissue but I insisted on having it checked. Having learned I would have to wait months to see someone on the NHS, I funded a private appointment and operation. The results came back as sarcoma. A rare malignant tumour that required a second operation on the NHS. This was the surgeon's choice to move me back to the NHS as he had access to oncology experts there to advise him on the required treatment and procedure. I had my second round of surgery on the NHS recently. My point is that had the NHS not got this badly wrong in the first place, the cancer would not have been misdiagnosed for years. Due to genetics reporting, they know it was always cancer, and always prone to regrowth. The first operation didn't take adequate margins around the tumour and this is why it came back. Am I really supposed to fund this care privately? Am I really supposed to shun the advice of my plastic surgeon about going back into his NHS clinic for treatment as he doesn't perceive the private hospital to be sufficiently resourced to deal with my condition? Of course not.

BlueEyedPeanut · 02/12/2023 01:26

mantyzer · 01/12/2023 16:35

It would be similar to allowing private schools to send their pupils to state school for lessons they do not want to provide.

That doesn't make any sense.

It costs the NHS to use the NHS. It costs the patient to go private. So in your example - parents pay for private education, and state schools pay to educate children. Therefore, it saves the state school/NHS money if they are only teaching/treating part of it rather than all of it. Plus, it creates a spot for someone else to use the funded place rather than sit on a waiting list.

helloOP · 02/12/2023 07:52

Cloudysky81 · 01/12/2023 19:55

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.

Yet the evidence is the exact opposite is happening.

Private treatment rates are through the roof, record numbers using the private sector, yet NHS waiting lists keep going UP.

On an individual level, yes of course use the Private Sector but the reality, as evidenced, is the more people do, the less the Govt will focus on the NHS.

Anyway, the OP made it clear that insurance policies should be used to cover costs NOT that people should be left to die.

The Govt chose to continue NHS strikes, saying no more money available, yet as we approach a GE, money has been found to settle them all, the knock on effect is budgets for staff training and recruitment have been spent on agency staff, instead of their original purpose.

HappyHedgehog247 · 02/12/2023 07:55

Universal healthcare. Free at the point of service. For everyone, for everything. Including people who have made flawed judgments (most of us!) whether that's a driving risk, a sport, not keeping for enough, not managing stress, having private surgery etc etc etc.

HappyHedgehog247 · 02/12/2023 07:56

i don't know why that was bold sorry

ALightOverThere · 02/12/2023 07:56

We don’t stop treating someone because they contributed to their condition. Lung cancer due to all the fags- you get treated. Broke your leg while acting the giddy goat- you get treated. Why should healthcare choices be any different? Restricting treatment is a slippery slope.

VoiceOfCommonSense · 02/12/2023 08:05

mantyzer · 01/12/2023 16:00

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.

It would probably cost more to police than you would save. Also where do you draw the line? Injured during recreational sports? That’s your own fault. Hit by a car when not looking? Pay for your own surgery.. if someone has a botched boob job or something from Thailand or Turkey and end up with sepsis for instance they should still be treated by the NHS for free, just don’t expect them to redo the surgery for you for free.

SarahShorty · 02/12/2023 09:24

Plenty of people said about how people should be denied treatment if they didn't get the covid-19 jabs. I see now that was hysteria and was rightfully ignored.

NotInvolved · 02/12/2023 11:42

Anyway, the OP made it clear that insurance policies should be used to cover costs NOT that people should be left to die.
Which is all very well, if you can get insurance. You can't generally get cover for pre existing conditions, in the same way as you can't take out home insurance after a burglary or car insurance to cover a crash you had yesterday. So if you are one of the many people who switches to private care because of problems accessing adequate care on the NHS then there's a high probability that you'll be paying for it out of your own pocket.

Lemonyfuckit · 02/12/2023 11:46

YABU. Often it's for necessary surgery and people are desperate because the waiting times are so long on NHS so they spend their life savings or borrow the money just to get treated within a more reasonable timeframe.

But even if it's for cosmetic procedures, if someone has a complication or an infection, and something has become an emergency (the private sector often doesn't have the resources no matter how much money you have to deal with urgent critical emergencies, that's just not how it's set up) what, just leave them without medical care? Obviously not.

Lemonyfuckit · 02/12/2023 11:47

Twiglets1 · 01/12/2023 16:24

You're being unreasonable.

The NHS is there for everyone, free at the point of delivery. Not free to the people you feel are deserving of it.

This.

Lemonyfuckit · 02/12/2023 11:48

ALightOverThere · 02/12/2023 07:56

We don’t stop treating someone because they contributed to their condition. Lung cancer due to all the fags- you get treated. Broke your leg while acting the giddy goat- you get treated. Why should healthcare choices be any different? Restricting treatment is a slippery slope.

And this too.