Would you use private HC for self/loved ones if you could afford it??

[DistinguishedSocialCommentator]

If you, or your loved ones were suffering from painy/worry/anxiety etc and awaiting an operation or a scan etc and worried sick and or could not work but an operation would get you back to your normal self - or, a scan etc would rule out/in any concerns etc - would you or your loved ones use private health care??

I guess the majority of people who could afford it or were so fed up with the waiting would even borrow a few quid and go for the checks/ops regardless of their political affiliations

In your judgement, would you consider it a very blinkered view to just say "no" to private HC even as a one off for family/you for reasons given above

Read about the "blinkered ideology" of the left. When I heard him say that, the first thing that came to mind was one of your children suffering from severe toothache and now NHS dental appts for weeks - most would pay privately.
I know of people that are not rich but have paid for scans and eye ops and a few are labour voters.

This is what a Labour guy believes

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13509751/Sir-Keir-Starmer-accused-using-blinkered-left-wing-ideology-refusing-private-healthcare-Labour-voters-use-it.html

I pay for Bupa for myself and dc. Dh gets it through work. I've used it twice, both dermatology reasons. Once for dc and once for me. Mine ended up being skin cancer and it was dealt with quickly. Couldn't get a gp appt.

Well back in the late 90s, under a Labour Government, the NHS refused to grommet my infant children who suffered 14 and 11 ear infections respectively and over periods of six to eight months. They were in constant pain and constantly on anti-biotics. We were constantly seeing the GP and if I'd been working I would have been unable to function due to constantly broken sleep. I spent three months dozing in the nursing chair because my dd could only sleep upright and in my arms.

Because their speech was well developed, the NHS said no. The grommets were a total game changer and the infections stopped immediately.

Ditto my bladder prolapse in 2001. NHS refused.

The Conservatives haven't destroyed the NHS and it isn't underfunded. It's bureaucratic, inefficient and dismally managed and that has been the case since 1947. It's staff are often rude and abrupt and have no cognizance of service.

It's interesting how the administrstors and receptionists at my local private hospital are polite and helpful across the board, whereas at my local NHS Hospitals it's variable.

So yes, I tend to use the private sector except for one chronic condition because the best consultant does no private work. Staff in her clinics speak to the public like rubbish and the admin and delays and associated lack of communication are a complete ball ache!

Yes. dS19 damaged his shoulder playing rugby a couple of years ago. Day to day he had no pain but it limited his ability to play sport ( his passion).
I didn’t even bother trying to see GP just self referred to the orthopaedic surgeon who has good reputation for shoulder surgery. He was seen within a week, had MRI ( enhanced ) and diagnosed with a SLAP tear.
He had surgery four weeks later, the wait was an indication of how many people are resorting to private care, and has had made a great recovery.
He has had a gap year so it was ideal timing.
I estimated that if we had gone through NHS route it would have been minimum 6wk wait to see GP who would have referred to physio. Without an MRI a few sessions of physio would have had no affect so then a referral to orthopaedic surgeon, non-urgent so minimum of -12 mnths. Once seen by surgeon a further wait for MRI - non-urgent again. Finally put on a list for surgery. It may not have been picked up by normal MRI so we may have had to start all over again.
I think if we’d gone via NHS he may well have been mid twenties before reaching the top of the list. So no sports at uni, possibly leading to low mood.
He is going to a Sports school within a uni and will have access to specialist sports physio for free. He is having to relearn how to use his shoulder but has accepted that time is important, a couple of friends with the same injury have rushed back and re torn their shoulder.
I have also discovered that he is cheaper to insure than the dog so I will pay for health insurance while he is at uni. It won’t cover his repaired shoulder initially but it will give him access to healthcare for everything else. He’s going to Wales where the NHS is on the floor well beyond its knees.

I didn't think I ever would but then got private healthcare provided by work (ironically public sector work!) which meant it was a no brainer as pre-existing conditions aren't taken into account and it's not expensive.

I do think it's crazy that work pay for mine, I just pay the IPT on it, but presumably they found they were losing too much staff time to people being off sick on waiting lists?

Of course I would. But I think in all honesty hi point is that people shouldn't have to because that is premise of the NHS. He was damned whatever he answered there. And actually when do we slip into the realms of people who have the money, which is being saved for their retirement etc, then using that money because their quality of life is so impacted by waiting for care on the NHS. I mean they can afford it. But then later down the line the state may well have to bail them out.

I have and I would, I also grew up in a communist country and this sort of “ideology” around private anything vs state scare the hell out of me.
Anyone in their right mind would pay for a life/pain saving treatment if they could afford it.

I have private insurance.

Honestly, though, I find the way that private healthcare in most areas appears to work in this country a joke and a total mess. Even if you want to see a specialist privately, you still have to fight with minimising GPs, because even if you're going private, you still need a referral. What the fuck.

In practice, what I do is go back to my home country when I'm on holiday and pay to see a specialist directly there. I only managed to get a GP to give me a referral after some 2.5 years because I bought in the documentation and the abnormal results I'd had in another country. The specialist I saw recognised immediately that there was something wrong, whereas GP after GP took the approach of 'well, sometimes this just happens, these very limited blood results we took were all within in the norm, so shrugs').

We get private through work.

Went private for my child recently as they were struggling and in a lot of pain. The gp referred but the nhs referral would've taken weeks. Months later we've now gotten to a point where its much better and we've almost gotten a diagnosis but the drs were good - instant referral, priority appts within a week. Bloods taken immediately and really detailed ones that take weeks. Fast response by email on medication changes etc.

If we'd left my child to be treated by NHS we wouldn't be in this position.

Thanks tories for fucking it up.

Yes, and have done. Us using private health care doesn't in my view negatively impact NHS patients. In fact it takes someone off the waiting list, doesn't it?

I have private dentistry, not NHS, initially because no dentist did evenings nor Saturdays on the NHS. I assume that counts.

Excellent point. GPs referrals should not be part of the private system.

But this isn't a communist country, never has been, never will.

Of course.

My local surgery just tells you to bugger off when you phone for an appointment.

So I went private. I needed an operation. Luckily DH's job has a health insurance option. We do have to pay, but the money is taken before payment of salary so it's not like a painful bill.

Starmer is a liar, or doesn't understand how everyone else has to live. I doubt that if he phones up his surgery and says, oh hi it's keir starmer I need an appointment that they actually tell him to bugger off like they do the rest of us.

I have to tell you it was well fucked up before the tories. The worst stay I ever had in hospital was in 2008. Nurses played solitaire whilst I collapsed on the floor and other patients tried to help me. Gave birth with ZERO pain relief because they told me I wouldn't be giving birth for another 10 hours and I needed to be quiet. Baby born 20 mins. Me into shock, H shitting it as my eyes rolled into the back of my head.

I'd had the induction pessary and then been ignored. The pain of an induced birth with no pain relief was barbaric. Labour had been in power 10 years.

The NHS needs divorcing from politics.

Of course you would. I was in this situation. I could either wait it out for another 18 months (at least) on the NHS and, in the course of that, give up my career when I had another two decades to go until retirement. Or pay for an operation that would allow me to continue in my job. Perhaps Starmer and his family have sufficient resources to accomodate him or his wife not working, but we don't.

Very much like people using private schools take the strain off the state sector.

I would like to be able to say no I wouldn't use private health care. But if I had young children I'm pretty sure I would. Although in my experience the NHS still deals with urgent and life threatening things very well. It would have to be on a case by case basis.

If he had said he would have used private healthcare the headlines in the press the next day would have been "hypocrite" etc etc.

He had to say what he did otherwise the press would crucify him.

In practice he'd do what Tony Blair did with his kid's schools - use sharp elbows and move to get them into the very best state schools.

I went private so that I could miss all the NHS bureaucracy and get straight into a shoulder surgeon when the shoulder I had surgery on in 2019 started to become symptomatic again. I paid for two consultations, an x-ray and an MRI arthrogram before being referred back to the surgeon's NHS list at the private hospital for surgery to repair the previous repair which had failed.

I now have BUPA with work for all 4 of us, and damn right I'll use it if needs be.

Thank you

Sadly, he was a lot more than a "bit silly." IMO, it was a tactical answer based on what his political beliefs and followers from the left want to hear.

Starmer is relatively young as is is his OH. Therefore, its unlikely they will need a cataract op, knee/hip relacment etc in the coming years. If their kids went for private HC - Starmer would just stated "they are adults." this is when his kids are 18+

IMO, this is a Daine Aboot moment. She lambasted her Labour peers for sending their kids to a private school. Then what do you think happened when her children grew up, did they go to a a state school - you know the answer

What made Starmers rant worse was, millions of people are forced to use private dentists and if he or his OH/kids were in awsome pain and the next NHS dental appt was two weeks away - do you really think he'd wait especially if it was his family??

You make a valid point - private HC insurance is not the same as paying one-off fees etc

Re scans - you can often get them the same or next day in most cases and the results within 24 hours. I had a scan, private one paid one off fee as the NHS scan was a a 3 month wait at the time - cost me a few quid but it put my mind at rest - others times we at times do use a private dentist as for cleaning teeth and fillings etc, its not that much more than what we pay via the NHS and much quicker and IMO, they do take a little longer sorting your teeth out

Yes

You seem to be trying to make it Starmer's fault there are no NHS dentists and the NHS is fucked. He hasn't been in charge for the last 14 years.
Trying to make out Starmer and Abbot have some dodgy morals is a bit rich considering everything we've seen in the last 14 years from the Tories. Nobody is perfect, but this is desperate stuff from the right.

Yes. It saved my life (cancer).

Also, DD was suffering debilitating migraines and missing 50% of school but the GP wouldn't do anything and the NHS referral waiting time was 18 months. Saw a paediatrician privately and within a month she was 90% better and hasn't missed a day of school since.

Anyone who says they would choose to let their child be in serious pain every day and miss 50% of school for a couple of years when they could afford private healthcare is either mad or lying.

Daily Mail or not, they had a point and that is a fact.
What person do you know that has money and a lot of the times not a lot of money that go for private scans, ops because they can wait the months or even a year in some cases EG, from referral, seeing a consultant, tests, going to to get results then added to waiting lists

So what person do you know that has a few million to their name would not use private HC even as a one-off to reduce/stop the suffering of their loved ones???

Just read the posts here