NHS/Private Medical Care - POLL

[CountessDracula]

After watching the news last night and seeing that the NHS is vastly overspending (no surprise there!) I wondered how many of you with private healthcare have had similar experiences to me. I also need input from people without

In the past 6 months dd and I between us have had 3x to be referred to consultants for various reasons. On all three occasions I have mentioned to the GP that we are covered by private health care and why didn't we use that to ease the burden on the NHS, given that I am paying for it I may as well use it.

On all three occasions (different gps as is large practice) they have refused, saying that the waiting lists are relatively short for these consultants and that as the complaints were not in need of instant attention that it would not be necessary.

Also when dd was in hospital I told them and said if they wanted to treat her privately then I could call my private healthcare co, again they said no!

I have NO probs with using the nhs I think the care is great, but this to me seems a little bonkers. Why not use private funding if someone has it?

So my questions are

1. If you have needed to be referred to a Consultant, has your GP asked if you have private healthcare? (mine never has)

1. Do you think GPs should be asking this question?

1. If you have volunteered that you have private healthcare, has the GP advised you against using it?

Well dh has asked on a couple of occasions.
Gp has never enquired and never taken him up on it when asked.
They were both seperate cases too.

Interesting question though. I never really thought about it like that.

1.No
2.No (although if the GP knew there was a horrendously long waiting time, I suppose they could check with you to see if you did have it)
3.Don't have it so don't know!

I do know a friend of mine who has private healthcare (lives in W4). Her son has always been treated on the NHS - he has had several operations and in all cases, the consultants and the GPs have told them to stay with the NHS (they offered to go private) as nothing would be done quicker or better privately.

Her health is another matter and she was advised to use her private healthcare to get a gynae matter sorted because the GP told her she would probably wait several months (if not a year) before her NHS appointment came up and even then, as it would not be classed urgent, nothing much would be done about it. So for her health, she has always been advised to go private.

So maybe it is more of an adult/child spilt.

If a lot of people are in the same boat as me I think I should send the results to Patricia Hewitt or someone

foxinsocks why do you not think they should be asking? Do you not think they should be trying to limit their spending?

CD, its not always that simple, you cannot simply get private treatment in an NHS hospital, if you did this would not ease the burden of the nhs but add to it as private patients would effectively que jump and cause waiting list to be longer.

Private health care although quicker is not always better and for anythin major I certainly wouldn'tm reccomend it to my family.

Yes the hospital are clean yes it is tea coffe and hotbread rolls on demand, but if you really need it emergency care will not always be avaliable.

I work in an nhs hosp near a private one and we take itu patint from this hospital as they have no itu beds.

If you are in an nhs hospital you can be revieswed by any seciality you need, this will not happen in a private hospital as they are not always avaliable.

For simple precedues i can see no harm in using private health care but for anything major i would not reccomend it for my own family.

in short i have never been asked and would only voluter that kind of info for minor procedures and tests, although i have so may 'pre existing' conditions that I have never bothered with PHC

because I think that's something people should volunteer (and I'm sure most people would ask if they had private cover)

NO I wouldn't use it for anything serious either - dh is a clinical negligence lawyer and I know about the appalling staffing situations in private hospitals, lack of crash teams etc.

I am talking about for minor things.

Re the queue jumping, we were already admitted to hospital when I offered this. I am not talking about wanting to do it to get a nicer room or biscuits fgs, just to save the nhs money!

I'm quite surprised about your minor illnesses (not being referred privately) CD. It doesn't surprise me about your dd being in hospital and them not wanting you to go private as this has happened with several of our friends (and I think once she has seen a consultant they probably want to make sure she finishes her treatment/recovers and has the option of emergency treatment right there).

I have to dissagee with you about the nicer bisuits CD the nhs has some of the best digestive i ever came accross .

In theory this could potentially cut waiting list however, I think the point i was tring to make was that if the private sector was going to be used on a regular basis it would need to pull its socks up.

The only private hospitals i have seen that are up to standard are the ones that the nhs is currntly using to cut waiting list!

I think the key here might be you being too polite!

Perhaps you need to tell them you would like to use your private heathcare? Maybe giving you the option they feel they are being left open to criticism? Also if things went wrong? Would the consultant etc be concerned that it might come back to him saying going private was a good idea??

Just a thought.

the private healethcare plan we have refers you to a private hospital if the nhs waiting list is more than 6 weeks, at no point does this cost the nhs money, because treatment never takes place in an nhs hospital.

our gp, knows that we have insurance so always asks if it is something that could be done privatley, if needs be.

yes i think gp's should ask this question, the insurance is realtivley cheap, ours is approx £100 for the family for the year, on the basis that we haven't had to use it yet (touch wood!) it is a bit of money to spend, but i'm sure should we ever need it, it will be worth every penny.

the one time my dh said that we had insurance and should he use that it was unfortunatley for something that wasn't covered, chiropody and he is still waiting for his nhs appointment 12 months later!!!

just out of interest, my mum is being discharged from hospital today, she has a gynae problem that needed sorting (endometritis ?spelling) and was told the nhs wait was at least 6 months, but with her insurance she saw the gp on the thursday, referred to consultant at private hospital on the mondya and chose tog o in teh following monday, she could have gone in sooner if she had wanted to!

flossam, how was night out?

Good on the whole. Didn't get to do an awful lot of talking, apart from to DS . One small 'episode' when DS had a hissy fit, then he was charming for the rest of the evening once main course arrived! So glad I went overall, got back V late though, so shattered today! I have a MN'er arriving shorlty, I'm half dressed, the house is a state and I haven't prepared lunch yet! OOps!

Working as a medical secretary I am pretty sure that two of the GPs I work for ask about private insurance and encourage people to use it, due to their own beliefs and also it must be said a current big crunch in local NHS spending and numerous admin muddles (I take my share of the blame there). The other two are less likely to do so.

I've never been asked by my own GP. I take the view that they should tell you what the waiting lists are on the NHS and then leave it to you.

The only exception I would make would be diagnostics - waiting times for MRI or routine audiology round here are over 6 months. I think GPs should ask a bit more about whether people are willing to pay for those.

flossam 90% of the time you get the same consultant as on the nhs anyway!

I just think that even if the waiting list is short that they should ask if you have phc and use it.

CD if you think that is true then surely it would take NHS doctors away from the NHS and spending more time in private care, it doesn't add up. Great if you can afford it but pitty if you cant, you waiting list may be longer as you consultant is part time from doing private shifts!

Yes good point chapsmum hadn't thought of that

I really think you are on to something, with the idea CD, but like I said the privatre sector needs a better structure and shake up first!

1 No
2 Maybe - depends on the condition/waiting time
3 No - I've used it on 3 occasions I think twice for dh and once for ds2.

Having offered to use it CD I don't see why you should be refused. Particularly by the GP - just because the wait isn't too long on the NHS you may have other preferences - for a particular consultant for example.

I probably wouldn't have offered once admitted to hospital - actually definitely wouldn't as we have to pay the first £100 with our policy.

Those are the sort of things I was thinking about acnebride - diagnostic. We went private for dh's recent knee MRI as although the list wasn't too long (8 weeks I think) he couldn't work and we needed it sorting. We paid (well the private insurance did) for ds2 to see the ENT consultant and he was then transferred back to the NHS waiting list.

what is a saggar maker?

Lol CD

It's a reference to my birth place - Stoke.

It's an old term from the pottery industry. The Saggar Maker was a skilled man, producing the finished saggar (a fireclay container), using his thumb to make a near join between the side and the base. The Bottom Knocker was his assistant. He made the base of the saggar from a lump of fireclay which he knocked into a metal ring using a wooden mallet or mawl.

We've never been asked, but my husband has always volunteered the information.

My aunt died of cancer a few years back, we went private for her treatment too, because the wait on the nhs for her treatment was unacceptably long, luckily she was covered on my uncles healthcare plan.

I think GP's should ask if you have a private healthcare plan.

And no no GP has ever advised us against going private..

1. No, I don't think the GP has ever asked if we have healthcare, although we have been private for a number of consultations in the last year.

1. The GP strongly advised us to go private if we could afford it - and we did. We are now being seen by the NHS pain team however as the state system seems to have caught up (finally) with the severity of dh's condition.

1. (Put deliberately last as I wanted to think about it more). Should GPs ask - I think no. The message it sends is "there is a quicker option, but if you can't afford it, tough". Either GPs would only have to ask those people who looked like they could afford it (dodgy) or keep quiet. Obviously people are aware that private healthcare exists but I don't think they need it mentioning by their GP when they're being referred.

Re: consultants doing private work, I would like to hope that the way it works is that the NHS contracts them for a certain number of shifts per month (adequate to need although given some of the current wait times that looks a tad dubious) and consultants can only take on private work outside those shifts. Increasing demand for private work should not reduce availability in the public sector.

We don't have private health care. Once when DS was a baby he had a growth on his face that was regularly bleeding copiously and covered in loads of scab material. It was just below his eye and so if he rubbed them because of tiredness etc that would set him off. It was ruling our life - I couldn't leave him to settle himself to sleep, DH had to pin him down while I dried him so that he didn't rub his eyes, I set the alarm for the middle of the night to check he wasn't bleeding in his sleep (it had happened) and we had two trips to A&E - one where nursery called an ambulance.

The GP misdiagnosed it as a strawberry naevus and did a non-urgent referral to a consultant. My ILs then offered to pay for a private referral. She refused to give it. After the next nursery incident DH took him to see a locum on the Tues who decided it was urgent, got us an NHS referral for the Thurs and he was operated on, on the following Monday, two days before his first birthday for removal of a granuloma.