Private CT/MRIs

[ServantofthePeople]

I’d be grateful to learn of experiences of these which are widely advertised. Are they good quality? How do you know about quality? Are multiple scans safe?

We’ve just had a life threatening medical emergency with ds which has left me shaken. The bigger risk is reoccurrence (bleed under the skull).
although with his history you would hope he would be in the scanner straight away you can’t be sure nowadays (we had a two week delay that could have left him blind or dead and everything seems to vary hugely between hospitals).

To cope with the uncertainty I want to figure out what’s we can control/plan for.

all experiences gratefully received!

Hi
I paid to have a private MRI scan a couple of years ago.
My GP didn't think my symptoms warranted one so I paid £450 to have one at an NHS hospital.
The company I booked through was Vista Health.
The scan picked up a mass in my abdomen, 2 weeks later I was diagnosed with stage 1 ovarian cancer.
3 weeks after that I had a complete hysterectomy and had a 50lb ovarian tumor removed!
Possibly the best £450 I've ever spent 🙂

If you have a symptom and pay to have a scan at your local private hospital they will be of excellent quality, and reported on by consultants equivalent to the NHS.

If you are looking at a scan advertised on line of 'why not have a whole body MRI' then who knows, basically you are buying it to enjoy the pictures.

There are a host of scans that fall somewhere between these two extremes.

And no multiple exposures to radiation i.e. CT scans just for reassurance is not safe.

Don't forget private hospitals don't do A+E in the UK either so you can't have a scan today, and a scan is no use without someone to treat the results.

I've had 3 private scans and 1 NHS - private more thorough than NHS and a nicer facility each time.

Good luck that sounds very stressful

It's the same as on the NHS- you just pay to have it and have the results interpreted. I'm sorry you've had such a bad time.

They are the same the only difference is waiting times. If something is deemed medically urgent then they should be scanned quickly in an NHS setting anyway.

CTs have radiation (but if the info you find out is useful, then it is worth doing despite this - just don’t do it frequently for little benefit). MRIs generally don’t (unless they have specific dyes for visualising certain parts).

different modes of imaging are good for different structures. usually for this type of thing, you would have follow up with a specialist (I presume neurosurgeon or interventional radiologist?). Could you phone ther secretary to see if a private scan would speed up treatment? What type of scan would they recommend and how would they get it on the system? If you haven’t heard from a specialist yet, perhaps see your gp to be referred?

A relative paid for mri knee - which was helpful in showing a meniscal tear. However - in orthopaedic clinic they couldn’t tell her how to get it on the hospital system so they could view the images - so had to rely on the written report. Furthermore they said they wanted a specific view - that wasn’t in the report - so she had another one in nhs.

Thank you this is very helpful.
ds has had two CTs, an X-ray, an MRI and a brain angiogram within a week so I guess he’s all radiationed up!

perhaps the best thing is to have extra eye tests? It was the optician who saw things were wrong.

Um - I don’t necessarily think regular tests is going to pick things up earlier than noticing symptoms (sudden headache, sudden loss of function/sensation of a part of the body.

perhaps talk to your GP to understand what has happened to your DS and the implications for the future (eg - are there any activities he should avoid or symptoms he should look out for). Talk about your worries and concerns.

I don't know much about CT quality, but they use X-rays, so you don't want unnecessary ones.

MRI scanners are not all the same, an open MRI is measured at 0.5 Teslas, a traditional one is usually 1.5 or 3. The higher the Tesla the more detail you will get. So you need to know from your doctor what they are looking for and if the machine will give a clear picture.

Thank you both

The best people to talk to you be the neurosurgical/neurology team who treated your son.

They will know exactly what follow up they are planning to do in terms of repeat scans, what the risks of recurrence or rebleeds are and appreciate that you are all in total shock right now.

Thanks Anna.
It's more about processing it than specific questions for them tbh