Can you transfer easily from private to NHS?

[furrycat]

My father in law has suddenly gone very deaf and has been referred to a specialist. Rather than wait till June for his NHS appointment, he is seeing the consiltant privately next week.
He's paying for it himself and is worried what happens if he needs treatment. If a problem is diagnosed, can he then be transferred to the NHS or would he have to stick to the private system?
He hasn't yet cancelled his NHS appointment so I'm assuming we should keep it open for now?

This consultant that your FIL is seeing privately, is it the same consultant that also does the NHS work? or is it a different consultant altogether.

It's my understanding that if he needs treatment and he wants it on the NHS, then he will have to go through the whole process again - ie from initial consultation stage. I think the only advantage seeing a consultant privately if you're not having the treatment privately is peace of mind.

Having said that, it depends on what treatment he needs. I had a private consultation recently for something which would have taken forever on the NHS but took the recommendation to my GP who wrote me an NHS prescription.

I wouldn't cancel your NHS appointment until you're clear about next steps.

nametaken, it's the same consultant

I think that you can transfer back to NHS, but cant be ahead of someone who has had NHS treatment, ie you will go onto the waiting list at the point you would have been on if you have had NHS treatment the whole time - so if he is seen next week and a need for treatment is discovered then he will go on the waiting list for that treatment in the position of someone seen in June.

I think that technically that is how it is meant to work, though I have heard of people who have moved ahead because of private assessment. And if something very urgent was discovered I expect people would respond to that need.