Private healthcare? No luck with sore knee on NHS

[Sportyleopard]

After suffering with stiffness in my knee for about a year, I finally managed to get a GP appointment. The GP referred me to a physio (with a two month wait time).

I saw the physio today, and he said it could be several things and I should take ibruprofen.

I will take it, but I really want to know what the underlying cause is in case there’s it’s something (e.g. operation) that would help it get better (or slow it down if it’s degenerative) rather than just managing the pain. I’m 50 and don’t feel like writing myself off just yet.

I’m willing to look into private for the first time, but don’t know how to go about it. I don’t have private health insurance. I’d like to know if I can get an x ray or another form of evaluation (whatever they recommend).

I don’t have the foggiest how to go about this. What would my first step be? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ring or email your local private hospital…..something like a spire or bupa hospital and ask them…..they’d probably want you to have an appt with an orthopedic consultant before you can have a test. Unless your physio or gp is saying you need an mri, etc.

Maybe pay for a one-off appointment with an osteopath. They are pretty good, not all that expensive, and will hopefully be able to give you more of an idea what the problem actually is, what's causing it, and how it needs to be treated.

You can choose to see a consultant using the NHS choose and book system. I had knee pain and a friend recommended a 'knee' consultant. He sees private as well as NHS patients. I asked the GP to refer me to him and named him and the hospital and I saw him quite quickly after that.

Thank you for the advice all :)

Have to say I agree with this. I’ve seen four different private physios about my ankle in the last 4 years. Regular fortnightly appts and they’ve been fairly useless.

I’ve now seen an osteopath and within 5 mins he’s confirmed me with a rare muscle condition which has been confirmed by my GP, I feel confident he knows what he’s on about more than the physios or even the 2 orthopedic consultants I’ve seen….one of which did what I now realise was an unnecessary operation on me.

I've got an on going knee issue and like you I was referred to the physio by my GP. As anti-inflammatories and rest made no difference the physio referred me to orthopaedics for an MRI. Are you able to see the physio again? I'm quite lucky as my GP practice has one and you can book appointments directly.

If you get an appointment with an orthopaedic consultant, they pretty much know what the problem is by just movement and moving the knee, which would then be confirmed by either an xray or scan of the knee. At any time the consultant should be able to refer you back to the NHS by you need anything doing.