private vs NHS hospitials

[candyflossy]

Apart from the waiting time, is private much more better then NHS, in terms of treatment, service, etc.?

I have had the best treatment in the NHS (for breast cancer) have nothing but praise for it.

nhs is better if you want to be sure of medical cover in case of emergency

you'll get nicer rooms , meals etc in private but the doctors will not be there if things go wrong out of hrs

depends on the hospital and the treatment. my dh had his heart surgery in a private hospital with a leading surgeon who also practices NHS. so his medical care would have been the same on NHS but his nursing care and amenities were superior to it. hth

"the doctors will not be there if things go wrong out of hrs"
not true. depends on the treatment

Private better by miles. Private room with ensuite, better care, better food, very much like staying in a hotel except its hospital. I have chosen private care over NHS as often as possible, and my NHS experiences have been pretty crap.

y should have been MAY not be there
check first what medical cover there is out of hrs

I have just had a hysterectomy at a private hospital - my DH is fortunate to have private cover from his employer. My GP had suggested my treatment would be better carried out by the NHS, but after a 6 week wait to see an NHS consultant, it was then going to be a further 7 weeks wait for a scan so I decided to go private. I phoned to make a consultant appointment and within 2 weeks I had both had the initial appointment and the hysterectomy. Service and treatment in the private hospital were exemplary - even the food was good. The hospital has never had a case of MRSA or C-diff, as my consultant (who also works for the NHS) said - why would you expose yourself to that risk if you don't need to. I have nothing but praise for the private healthcare system.

Private much less likely to have a full cover of medical staff OOH. I want to an interview at a private hospital once where I'd have been the only doc there overnight, covering a whole hospital of post-op adults and children. Anyone requiring intensive care got shipped in an (NHS) ambulance to the NHS hospital down the road - and you really don't want to be driving anywhere if you're that sick.

You pay your money and take your choice, but I'd not stay overnight in a private hospital, and didn't take the job. Is squooshy carpet and more telly channels more important to you than the appropriate care on site if things try to go pear shaped?

Day-case might be different, and have no issues with clinics in the private sector.

Then again, OOH cover depends on the hospital. Smaller ones often don't have full emergency cover at night either.

I was diagnosed with bowel cancer by a private consultant in 2004 and within a week had the op. My care was fantastic, the room etc was lovely, proper thick curtains so I didn't wake up with the sun, obv. private bathroom etc.

The nursing staff, physio etc were very switched on. In NHS hospitals previously I've been left without fluids, left in pain and unable to reach the button, had to hobble down corridors to shared, dirty toilets etc.

When it came time to go on chemo, because I was private I was given oral chemo which was much milder than IV and I still carried on working for the 6 months with no major side effects, just fatigue, and some skin problems.

I'd highly recommend it if you can afford it/have insurance.

Private much more comfortable, clean, quiet, noticably higher staff-to-patient ratio. Think of it as a hotel.

Consultants are very likely moonlighting from a major local NHS hospital, they might arrive with their golfing shoes on, and will turn up at set times. At certain times of day, and during the night, it will be mostly unstaffed apart from a few nurses and one (relatively junior) doctor.

I had the misfortune to have quite a bad accident and was airlifted to a major regional NHS hospital. Emergency care, operating theatre, anaesthatists, pharmacists, physcian, surgeon, theatre team and stores were all available to put the bits together. ITU, couldn't fault it. Nightime emergency consultant brought up from A&E when I went downhill a bit.

When I got sufficiently better to care, I noticed that the small ward and barrier nursing room I ended up in were not very luxurious.

Private is more comfortable for scheduled, routine repairs.

Some parts of NHS hospital care, especially for the older patient, are disgusting.

I had an op recently in a private hospital but through the NHS (choose and book scheme). Hospital was lovely, private room great, food lush, staff all very nice. However, didn't rate the consultant at all, and after being discharged asked for a second opinion, and gave details of the consultant I wanted to be referred to (who specialises in my particular complaint).

Had this appointment recently in an NHS hospital, which looks fairly new. No idea what the rooms/wards/food are like, but the consultant I saw made me feel totally reassured and gave me a whole list of treatments they could try, so my experience there has totally swayed me back to NHS hospitals.

If I'd have had to pay privately for the treatment I had I wouldn't have been happy - but then maybe that was the problem, I wasn't paying.

It depends on the consultant, and the hospital. In the last year I have seen four consultants privately all of who have been fab, and had operations in two different private hospitals (and one NHS hospital).
The main difference in the private hospitals apart from the obvious amenity ones was that the nursing staff had a much lower patient load, so had time to really think about you - for instance, in the NHS admissions I had to beg for pain relief and then wait an hour for it. In the private ones, they had a pain strategy and if it didn't work did something straight away

I very much doubt that the nature of chemotherapy drugs varies between NHS and private hospitals... if strong intravenous chemo was needed for your type of cancer you would be given that, private or no.
As someone who works in the NHS - if you can afford it, for low risk non-urgent or elective treatment I would go private every time - treatment at the time and location that suits you, a nice room, nice food, nursing staff who have more time.
However as others have said, the medical cover and availability of senior staff overnight in private hospitals is extremely limited, they are very often not set up to deal with emergencies so anyone needing acute care will be shipped out to an NHS hospital. In some private hospitals they don't even have fully qualified nursing staff on all night let alone medical staff (a nursing colleague of mine who works for the NHS but does some bank shifts in the local private hospital was called in to do a night shift (having done a full day shift in the NHS hospital) because a child had had a minor complication after a small op and needed to stay in overnight but they had no registered childrens nurses).

All depends on the hospital.

I had surgery 12 weeks ago at our local private hospital. Nursing care exemplary. 24 doctor cover. My surgeon came to see me twice a day. Absolutely wonderful (as much as major surgery and chest drains can be .

Then had to have emergency operation at very well-known London private hospital. ITU care exemplary. Night nurses wonderful. My parents put in a formal complaint about the standard of the day nurses. Left me in pain as they didn't check on me, didn't make sure that I wasn't in pain, didn't help with toileting properly. Surgeon visited twice a day as he lived locally.

I have never had surgery in an NHS hospital but I would say that to have a private room is what I would always love to have when I have had major surgery. Privacy wise and also when I am moaning in pain, I don't want to be in a room of 6 other people.

I was an acute patient both times and the OOH care was absolutely fine.

sally again, my dh was operated in a private hospital twice - both times highly complex 8 hr ops (aortic valve replacemnt and pseudoaneurysm removal). He spent 12 days in ICU first time and had to be operated again two days later at 2am - full theatre team was assembled in no time. Second time 2 days in ICU, then recovery private room. In all cases one-to-one full nursing care in ICU.

There was a chance to go for this complex open heart surgery on NHS, but it was decided by the surgeon, cardiologist and GP that the facilities in the private facility are vastly superior (quite apart from ridiculous waiting time that it was agreed was totally unacceptable)

(besides from ridiculous waiting time for NHS that it was agreed was totally unacceptable)

I thank our lucky stars that we have decent private medical ins

As others have said it really depends on what you are being treated for.
I recently had some thyroid checks through my private health cover, and it was fab no wait for an appointment other than for my convenience, I had to go for a blood test which meant I was in and out in 10 minutes from arriving at the hospital. If I had gone the NHS route I would probably still be waiting.
I have had to have my IVF treatment privately and have also had one round on the NHS, in that case there has been no difference apart from to my credit card in the quality of care I have recieved.

I pay for private medical cover so that when I have to see a consultant I can pick and choose the day and time. Mostly I take evening appointments are these suit me better - impossible on the NHS. I am soon going to have carpal tunnel surgery and as my hands are my income I have chosen the surgeon with the best results in the South.
I would always have maternity care in the NHS we may not think it's perfect, but it is some of the best in the world.

Well, it's a bit like state and private education, isn't it? Either can be absolute rubbish. You're never going to be carted off to a private hospital straight after a serious car accident, though - they don't deal with emergencies. And, of course, when it comes to private health cover, if you have to admit to having anything wrong with you prior to getting it out, you're unlikely to get that covered by the insurance (or if you do, only at a significant premium) - they only willingly cover people they don't expect to get sick. And as you get closer to the sort of age when you might well need more frequent medical attention, the cost of the cover is likely to get more and more prohibitively expensive, until you have to stop paying for your private health cover and rely on the NHS at exactly the point in your life when you least want to because of all the stories in the newspapers about the dreadful care meted out to the elderly. For the majority, therefore, private health cover is only great for minor issues that nobody expected you to suffer from, not for chronic conditions, pre-existing conditions, or serious conditions the insurance company can find an excuse for not covering you for. That's why the hospitals are so well staffed and luxurious - because lots of healthy people are paying over the odds for them in the hope they get to use them at some point.

rabbit I completely understand the gripe that the brits have with the private insurance companies. I have an expat private cover from a western european country and they are not allowed refuse or hike up the premium or descrimilate in any way the suffers from "chronic conditions, pre-existing conditions, or serious conditions" and the insurance company can not "find an excuse for not covering you for" anything that is prescribed by a medical doctor (they can demand a second opinion though).

your insurance companies are allowed to get away with murder a lot.

Well, we don't copy Western Europe over here, do we? We're too much in love with the US - which has only just started to deal with the fact that their medical system has been allowed to get away with stopping treatment halfway through when a person's insurance policy no longer covers the cost, or exclusions for all the conditions the person actually suffers from, so that only the hugely wealthy can actually rely on benefiting from the amazing facilities on offer... In fact, it would appear we think the rest of Europe is a pain in the backside only here to spoil our party.

I want to 'like' rabbitstews posts a million times !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sally, the oral chemo was proven to be just as effective as the IV, but it wasn't available on the NHS.

We always go private where possible. The consultants all work in the NHS as well as privately. We see who we want to see, where we want to, when we want to. Privately you always see a consultant rather than a junior dr and in my experience have the time to see you properly rather than just rush through their caseload. In the past I have had a full mammogram, ultrasound, consultant appointment and lump drained in less than 24 hours from discovering it. DH had a back operation within a week of seeing a consultant, one I am sure he would still be waiting for on the NHS. He saw that consultant 2 days after making an appointment. Having had private and NHS maternity care private was in a different league. The NHS has it's place and it can be great but I prefer to avoid it where possible.