Threat to exclude from NHS treatment ?

[QueenofNW2]

My Polish nanny is pregnant. She booked her 12-week scan with the Foetal Medicine Centre in London, since she was concerned that the NHS might not be able to book her in time for this scan.

She did manage to see an NHS midwife late last week, and a 12-week scan offered for this Friday. The private test is booked for this Thursday.

The midwife apparently told her that if she went ahead with the private test, there was no guarantee that she would get further NHS care. She would have to go to her doctor to try to get this. Obviously, there may be a language issue, since I was not with her.

Either way, she is confused and worried.

My question is: Surely taking one private test wouldn't be grounds for either NHS GP or midwife-centered care to be denied if she wants it (as she does)? I also chose private 12 week tests for both my pregnancies and proceeded with NHS (midwife led) with no issues raised at all.

Can anyone advise ASAP, I'd like to clarify matters for her, explain her rights - she is a lawful tax payer in this country.

if she has the private scan, she may not get her NHS scan too, BUT she cannot be denied NHS treatment for the rest of her pregnancy on the basis of a private 12 weeks scan

they're talking bollocks! plenty of people have private scans, particularly when they're trust doesn't offer 12 weeks or 20 week scans.

is she registerd with a GP? she needs to see him/her about her concerns.

she is a taxpayer and an EU national who is eligible for NHS treatment.

She had cancelled the NHS scan since there was no need to duplicate. But she's now also been told by a friend that private test won't be as good as the NHS one. I don't believe that to be true either - certainly not at the Foetal Medicine Centre which is also a registered charity and research centre.

The private scan is just as good.

private scan will be as good if not better, than the NHS one. definitely see GP as soon as possible.

This helps a lot. She's also bringing me some paperwork that confused her. May tap you all again. Appreciate the response.

Her best bet would probably be to write formally to the supervisor of midwives at the local hospital she wants to go to and request that her care be arranged and appointments booked. Also to complain about her obstructive (and deluded) CMW.

The FMC is a very good place for scans I'm told. Much better than an NHS centre where they only allow 11 minutes per patient.

I know peopple who have been told they can't have the NHS scan if they book a private one, that may be the issue?

I had a private scan also at the FMC, didn't have the NHS one because it would have been the same but taken longer. DD was born in an NHS hospital and I had a NHS MW dealing with the rest of the pregnancy. She should go with the FMC as they are the absolute experts and invented the test.

Most NHS hospitals still don't do the proper nuchal scan +bloods and if they do it takes a lot longer to get the results.

How would the NHS even know for sure that she has had a private scan? Surely if you are having NHS care you can pay for as many private scans on the side as you feel like?

Even if she wasn't having the private scan she would be within her rights to refuse the NHS one. Scans are not compulsory.

I hope there has been a mix up and it is not just some midwife talking crap after those recent cases in the papers about people being refused NHS treatment after paying privately for cancer drugs.

There is an issue about people combining NHS with private treatment in other areas of healthcare, but I've never heard of someone being refused NHS maternity care because they had a private scan. It's really common to have a private scan, especially where the NHS doesn't offer it. I also had my 12 week scan at the Foetal Medicine Centre, because my NHS hospital didn't offer it, and went straight on into NHS care.

I suspect the midwife doesn't know what she is talking about, but I would be inclined to ring the Head of Midwifery at the local hospital and check this out asap.

Which hospital is she booking at, btw?

Maybe they combine the booking in appt with the 12 week scan and the midwife is worried about her slipping out of the system if she doesn't have it?

As long as she is a UK taxpayer, she would be entitled to any necessary NHS maternity care even if she had booked with an independent midwife, for example. So having a private scan would make no difference - people do it all the time.

Either the mw is talking out of her arse, or something has got lost in translation. Was the appointment with the midwife a booking appointment for the hospital, then?

I saw a news item recently about someone being told he would be refused other NHS treatment for his cancer if he paid privately for a drug that is not yet approved on the NHS. There was some rule to this effect (which I think is pretty crap, btw). However, during the discussion about it, someone pointed out other instances where private and NHS services/treatment would both be used by someone for the same "condition" and used the example of someone having private fertility treatment and then using the NHS for the ensuing pregnancy - which is fairly common and has no such issue.

No one can have missed all the news items about the ban surely? Do a google search and you'll get countless articles on it in relation to cancer in particular.

For a private scan I am not sure but local NHS trusts probably have their own rules. In my area they won't tell you the sex on a scan as so many women then abort girls so there might be reasons they want to deter private scans for the purpose of saving the lives of lots of local babies even.

I had my scans of the twins at the FMC -but I had a private midwife who did all my care so it wasn't an NHS thing.

The NHS seems to apply the "no NHS treatment after any private treatment" rule only to cancer cases - at least, they are the only ones where I've ever heard it used.

Certainly they don't operate it in maternity cases. I had a private 12 week scan at the FMC, which my NHS GP knew about, and there was never any question of me not getting the rest of my maternity care on the NHS. This has happened to lots of other women I know, so it't not just me.

Scans at the FMC are much higher quality than the NHS ones, as is the level of care you receive there generally. The pictures are crystal clear compared with the grainy NHS scans, and you get as long as you like to talk to the sonographer and even Dr Nicolaides himself (a world authority who invented the nuchal fold test) if you go on a Wednesday.

I had my 12 week scan at the FMC and my GP had recommended it to me as being better than the NHS hospital scans. No issue with having all other care at the NHS hospital and I did tell them I'd had my nuchal scan at the FMC and even added it into my hospital notes for their information. I also booked independent midwives late in my pregnancy but kept up my hospital visits as a 'back up' and eventually (unintentionally) ended up giving birth in the NHS hospital anyway after a hospital transfer from home with independent midwife in tow. Unless the rules have quietly changed in the last year or so I don't think paying for private maternity care means the NHS can refuse any further care.

Could the conversation have been misinterpreted? How good is your Nanny's English? Because the idea that private scan = no NHS care is simply rubbish. So either she's misunderstood, or the m/w was suspicious that she's not entitled to NHS care anyway as a foreigner (which is also untrue). Or the m/w is daft as a brush. At any rate, your nanny IS entitled to NHS care.

FWIW I had a scan at the FMC and my entire ante-natal, birth and post-natal care on the NHS.

No 12 weeks scans offered around here so I had one done privately - at a clinic recommended by my NHS GP!

I had my 13 wk scan at FMC because my hospital didn't even attempt to book me in until I was 16 weeks (despite being referred by gp at about 6 weeks...). Then, at 16 week book-in, I tried to book in 20 week scan (nhs), only to be told that their scanning was fully booked until I was 22 weeks. So I said I could get it done privately if it would help... and was told "oh would you? That would be very helpful....".

So it's all bollocks, what your nanny has been told....

I had private 12wk NF scans (as not available on the NHS in my area) arranged for a couple of days after my 12wk NHS scan at the centre recommended by my community m/w! There was never any suggestion of not getting NHS care as result (everything else in both pregnancies was NHS)

Can I just endorse what was said above - the FMC scan was crystal clear, brilliant. I could see without any prompting the sex for example although my first surprise on the first scan there was that it was twins, not one baby! Also I didn't want most of the testing that women go there to have as I wouldn't want to know if the child had a problem and I wouldn't have an abortion and that wasn't a problem but a lto of women were there to do that nuchal scan thing which allows them to check for down's earlier than usual.