Private consultant appointment - confused!

[GiraffesCantDoMentalArithmetic]

My GP recently referred me to a consultant, but the next available appointment on the NHS isn't for months at any of the local hospitals. My in-laws have very kindly offered to pay for a private consultation to get the ball rolling with treatment. I've managed to get an appointment (next week!) but I really have no clue how any of this works. Does anyone have any experience of using private healthcare?

• Should I get a copy of the blood test results my GP did to take with me to the appointment? Are GPs happy to provide these?
• If the consultant gives me a prescription, will this be a private prescription? Does that mean I'll have to pay the full cost of the drugs? Is there any way to get an NHS prescription from a private consultation?
• I won't be able to continue with private care after the initial consultation, so how to I go about transferring back to the NHS for follow-up care?

I am so totally clueless about this!!

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

1. yes, they should be
2. yes, it'll be a private prescription and you'll have to pay
3. my private consultant said they weren't allowed to do that, you have to be referred back to your GP to be referred for NHS treatment. But she did write a strongly worded letter to my GP telling him to refer me quickly.

I've done it a couple of times.

You can get your blood results from the GP's surgery. There's usually a nominal fee (I think ours was 50p per sheet / copy).

Take all you can to the appointment, including a timeline of symptoms and whatever medication etc. you've had to date.

If it's going to get expensive the two consultants I've seen privately have written to my NHS GP to get them to refer me back to the consultants. It's a bit of a faff but does work.

I don't know about prescriptions because my wonkiness doesn't need meds.

Good luck and I hope you get the answers you need.

Thank you freezer - that's really helpful.

Are private prescriptions very expensive? Not sure what I'll do if the consultant hands over a prescription which costs £££££ and I just have to say no!

I have my original NHS appointment (for a few months time). If I turn up to that saying my treatment has already started, and explain what it is, will that be OK? Or is that not the done thing at all? Will the consultant write to my GP so it's all on my records?

Thank you MrsMozart - it's encouraging that you managed to transfer back to the NHS.

My particular brand of wonkiness will definitely need meds, but at least it won't need surgery!

I was once (rather unwillingly) transferred by a consultant I saw privately back to her nhs clinic as she said she wanted her usual nhs team therefor my procedure. This is probably rather unusual though

Interesting thinkfast. Worrying that she was unhappy with the team at the private hospital but was still prepared to contract to work for them! Good that she put your best treatment as her priority.

You might find your private consultant and your NHS consultant are the same people...

I have asked my GP to write NHS prescriptions for privately prescribed medicines. My practice is pleased to do this because it means I'm not using NHS resources for the specialist appointment.

If the privately prescribed medicine is not expensive, I'm happy to just pay for it.

You can take your prescription to the private hospital pharmacy (or to any pharmacy at all) and ask the pharmacist what the cost will be.

Not all medicines cost a fortune. When you know the cost, you can decide whether you want to ask your GP to prescribe it.

If your diagnosis indicates a long term condition, you can ask the private consultant about transferring to her/his NHS clinic.

Good luck with your appointment.

The gp should transfer all of your details over, including any test results and clinic letters.

We recently had a private appointment for my dd, and they used the same system so could see all of my daughters test results, and the gp sent over all clinic letters.

Does your gp know you are getting seen privately, I presume they referred you? Perhaps worth a call asking them to send details over.

We have been going round in circles with the nhs for years and getting nowhere with treatment for dd (bowel condition)

She saw us within days and actually added dd to her nhs clinic, saying that she wouldn’t be able to do everything she wanted to do privately (would run into tens of thousands)
Dd was operated on within 2 weeks, under the Nhs, and we have follow up with her and under her care team now.
It really was the best decision for us.

Forgot to add we had dd seen privately in a different county - we wouldn’t have had access to this doctors nhs clinic any other way.

I have found my GP’s secretary a very useful point of contact for this sort of thing. Try giving them a call.

Thank you Molly. I'm not sure my if GP would be happy to prescribe the drugs I think I'll need (Methotrexate)? I think it needs a lot of follow-up blood tests etc. I suppose I just have to ask!

Jammie my GP referred me via the NHS but I've organised this appointment myself so I don't suppose they'll get my info automatically like with a standard referral. I will call the GP surgery tomorrow - they must be used to this surely? Thank you.

Panda "helpful" might be stretching things at my GPs. I shall consider myself lucky if I can get through on the phone!

I had private prescriptions for an ongoing viral condition, I can't quite remember but I just got it converted to an NHS prescription - wish I could remember

I've done this for a couple of different issues. First time I specified which consultant I wanted to see, last one the GP sent me to someone local.

The consultants I've seen wanted the GP referral prior to appt.

I cancelled my NHS consultant appt, as I wasn't going to get further treatment for the 1st condition.

If meds are prescribed, then it can become a shared care arrangement. 2nd one wrote to the GP saying what to prescribe, if I decided to medicate.

Both wrote back to the GP, copying me in.

For most common conditions you can ask your GP for a choose & book referral, you can choose to go to a private hospital but the NHS pay for your treatment.( They use this service to keep waiting lists down to acceptable limits) When you do this you get exactly the same treatment & service as a private patient, you get to choose when you go for your operation or treatment, there is much less chance of getting cancelled, you normally get a room to yourself, better food, less chance of infection & generally you are in & out much quicker than in an NHS hospital. The only difference I found was that you didn't get a morning paper like the private patients, At the hospital I used all rooms were ensuite, had sky television, open visiting from 9.00am to 9.00pm & being terrified of hospitals I was able to have someone with me until I went to theatre & they could wait in the room until I came back, my partner was able to stay overnight for a small charge, constant tea & coffee, no waiting hours to go to theatre, you are usually admitted a couple of hours before you go up for your operation, they are brilliant with pain & sickness relief & you really feel cared for & not someone to be got rid of as soon as possible.

I did this last year but as I knew I wanted to return to NHS treatment I deliberately chose a private consultant who I knew worked at our local NHS trust . I saw him twice privately and had several blood tests before being moved back to NHS care . As regards the prescription I saw him on a Friday night and opted to just purchase a weeks worth of the drug as I knew my GP would be happy to write me a prescription on the following Monday . When I got a prescription for an additional drug at my next private appt I didn’t buy any but just took the private prescription to my GP the next day and he prescribed it for me on the NHS .

My GP said if I was being referred to a private consultant then they couldn't also refer me to the NHS, it was one or the other. On the plus side the consultants I've seen both referred me directly to their practices in the NHS without needing to go to the GP again, although then I was stuck in the NHS waiting list system, one of my referrals was lost, the other one was a mess that I had to complain twice about to PALS and I still don't know what's going on, so I'm not really convinced the early private appointments helped massively in the longer term, although I guess it got some of the diagnostic tests done quickly, but the costs soon mounted up to nearly £2k.

I didn’t have a referral privately , I just rang up , I had already got referrals into the NHS . My private consultant saw me 5 weeks after my second private appt on the NHS so very simple in my case .

For a private prescription you pay the actual cost of the medicine. The NHS prescription charge averages out the cost so that people whose illnesses cost thousands to treat pay the same as people whose illnesses are cheaper to treat. There was a whole scam a while ago where GPs were caught writing private prescriptions for drugs that were cheaper than the NHS prescription charge in order to save people money. Which of course makes the whole system fall down.

The private consultant can refer you to his own or someone else's NHS list; no need to go via the GP. This is to avoid swamping them with unnecessary purely admin work, though they can of course be copied in to be kept in the loop.

Medicines, depends what they are. Some are hospital only, some are shared care agreements.

Wow - loads of replies! Thank you so much everyone. It looks like there's quite a wide variety of "rules" about transferring care, probably depending on which NHS trust you're part of.

There were no private options on my NHS choose and book Nat. I won't need an in-patient treatment though so I'm not too worried. I just wanted the shorter waiting time for the initial appointment. NICE recommends initial therapy should start within 3 months of first symptoms and I'm already at 10 weeks. The NHS appointment would have taken it to 7 months.

Sadly, the consultant I have chosen (specialist in my condition) does his NHS work for a trust which wasn't one of the options on my original choose and book referral, so I don't know if it will be easy to transfer care to the same consultant's team. Perhaps my NHS trust doesn't have an arrangement with his?

Thanks again for all the responses.

My DM sometimes sees her NHS consultant privately when she feels she can't wait for a follow up. She can afford the occasional appointment but not the whole lot. As it happens, she was put on methotrexate by him too!

The private secretary should trace all your blood results but if you bring them, it will help.

You will have to pay for a private prescription but many drugs cost pennies, the cost should not be significant and my DM found the private hospital pharmacist v helpful going over stuff.

Don't panic over the Choose and Book thing, however you aren't supposed to be able to use the private system to queue jump into the NHS. But if you need to go NHS and want to go with him after, say so and he will know what to do, especially if you do go on methotrexate and need hooking into the monitoring system.

Thanks Anna. I will feel much happier once everything is up and running!

If you advise your GP they should send over test results etc.

If you speak to the consultant about transferring back to NHS they can do that.
We dud this with my daughter; we did full NHS first time she had a problem and surgery and it took 9 months , half that time was waiting for our 'urgent' consultant appt. during which tine she got worse and has permanent damage. Second time round i asked for private referral to consultant, we saw in a week, went back to NHS for surgery which was a few months after that.