Private care for pregnancy

[EllaSW]

I have been advised that if you choose private care for your pregnancy you in effect opt out of the NHS and cannot return (even if you develop acute issues). Is that right?

No I don’t think that’s true. Bear in mind a lot of private maternity hospitals dont have facilities to handle complications so you’d be transferred to NHS then anyway if needed.

I don't think that's right. You can discharge yourself from private health care. What if you suddenly couldn't pay for it due to a change of circumstances? You're not then going to be refused medical care.

No not at all. I had mine with a private consultant in a private wing of an NHS hospital. Had a flu jab on the NHS, baby briefly spent some time in NHS special care, the hearing test and post natal physio were NHS and when discharged it was to the NHS community midwives.

Nope, you can switch between the two. The NHS won’t refuse to care for you. Continuity of care, and getting the admin sorted, might well be a headache though.

You need to be aware that often private facilities will not have an emergency department so in the event of complications all they can do is scoop you into an ambulance and take you to the nearest NHS hospital. You can move between the 2 at any time but the admin might be painful to get you registered back with the NHS initially.

You can switch between the two, although you probably wouldn't want to. I had an Independent Midwife for all of my care (including the home birth). Exceptional and personalised care.

Yes this, basically avoid the portland and go with somewhere like Chelsea and Westminster where NHS labour ward, theatres, NICU and the private maternity ward are all on one floor.

@Bitzee assuming the op is in London.

Of course you can return to the NHS if you want or need to. It's a universal service and you have already paid for it.

Transferring between the two during pregnancy can be difficult but as others have said if you get into trouble giving birth NHS will take on your care seamlessly. i did one of each and would probably do NHS if I had a third. My experience was that continuity of care was good for both nhs and private… but I lived relatively remotely for the nhs one I know others don’t have the same experience but my nhs midwife (lovely Judith) was just fab, always on the end of the phone for any questions etc. facilities were better for private care, and much nicer. I saw a consultant every time, and I never felt rushed. They offered different tests like strep b that I didn’t get with nhs, and early scans as well which was nice.

Good point, I had assumed OP was in reach of London mostly just because there is very little in way of private maternity facilities outside of London. Although I suppose you can do private/independent midwife anywhere.

@Bitzee You can indeed. I'm not in London but employed an Independent Midwife for all of my maternity care - labour, pre and postnatal. Home birth.
I had two (not great) NHS hospital births prior to that (10 years after my second child was my last birth) but no longer felt this was safe. As people are now beginning to realise.