NHS- you can see why people go private

[Number14]

Private healthcare is not the answer- firstly, it isn't available to all like the NHS (small details etc permitting) - I understand your frustrations at the wait and hope there is a cancellation for you soon. Bear in mind that private patients get treated by NHS doctors that also do private work. When I worked in the NHS these doctors favoured and spent more time on those patients that paid. Private patients also often use the same resources that NHS places do ie scanners, staff, doctors etc etc, so it doesn't address the problem - allows for greed in some doctors that are already paid huge salaries and continues to create an elitist moneyed system. The NHS needs more input and don't get me started on the cost of certain services and medicines etc.

I would like to correct you on that one.

The NHS is moving towards "Any Willing/Qualified Provider" for commissioning healthcare. Your local Primary Care Trust could, in theory, refer you to a private provider if the cost is comparable to the NHS.

I work for a private Healthcare provider and we have a patient from "up north" travelling over 200 miles who is booked in for an NHS paid-for pain management procedure next week.

 

[cyberknight]

I get private health care through work , family covered for £20 a month, silly not to at that price.

 

[vickster]

How come all these great private doctors are trained by the N.H.S. work part time for the N.H.S. to do private work which could be done for the N.H.S.and in some cases is done in N.H.S.hospitals as private work.

If we train them to to be the best then we should expect them to be the best when we need them not just when we can afford them.

If the top doctors could not do a mix of private work with their NHS work, I suspect that they would only do private work. Some of the top orthopaedic surgeons do exactly this and have no problem subsisting.

Surely better to allow the mix and then there is no brain drain from the NHS - all patients continue have access to the top folks.

 

[ufkacbln]

Probably shouldn't say this, but when it comes to scanning...

We have some equipment in our Trust that we cannot use because NuLabour gave the contract for all our patients to a private company.... we are not allowed to do NHS patients in an NHS Hospital!

We sit there with the machine doing about 3 - 4 patients a week when it could do 50, and all the patients have to travel some distance to the private machine.

 

[lulubel]

Since moving to Spain, I've gone private for everything, and will continue to. It isn't that the Spanish health service is particularly bad - in fact, everything I've heard about it is good - but I don't speak enough Spanish to understand medical terms, so I want a English speaking doctor. Since "going private" for the last 2 years, I wouldn't do anything else now. I pay on an individual appointment basis for routine things, and have insurance to cover anything serious. I've been able to "shop around" and find medical professionals who listen to me rather than talking down to me, and the whole process of being unwell has been far less stressful and distressing.

My last stay in an NHS hospital was with a chest infection and life threatening asthma attack over the millenium. They took 8 hours to diagnose the problem (even though I told the first doctor I saw right after I was wheeled in on a trolley that I had a severe chest infection and needed antibiotics), and I ended up staying in hospital for a week. It probably would have been 3 or 4 days at most if they'd bothered to listen to me, and treated me immediately.

 

[al-fresco]

I don't have a problem with people 'going private' but I do have a problem with NHS doctors who also do private work - because it creates a conflict of interest. If waiting times are lowered then there is less incentive for patients to pay for private treatment - therefore it is in a practitioner's interest to keep waiting times at a level that will ensure that at least some of their patients will pay to get to the front of the queue.

 

[fossyant]

Many consultant's have two or more 'jobs' on top of their NHS work. Mr shoulder consultant works in a few places, his colleague runs one of the top shoulder clinics, as well as NHS. The 'independent' consultant that was appointed for me to see for the PI side of my accident, is based at my local hospital (he was seeing patients opposite my consultant's rooms), he also works at one of the Private hospitals, has 3 or 4 'offices' and works for this private company assessing folk's injuries from accidents. Bit of a money earner for him. TBH not a job I'd like as they don't have regular hours, and all seem to be working many many hours in their various 'roles'.

 

[Fiona N]

...
Scan on 31[sup]th[/sup] May
...

Think yourself lucky - you actually got a scan.

I was due to go for a lower back/pelvis scan a couple of years ago - between by physio and my GP they arranged me a date at quite short notice. I got to the hospital but had to see the orthopedic registrar first. He decided, on no real information, that I didn't need a scan - waste of money for a middle aged woman obviously - and sent me for an X-ray. When I spoke to the radiographer and told her what had happened she was incandescent as she knew (as apparently the registrar didn't) that X-rays only show bone damage and I knew what that was, having had the problem for 20 years (the radiographer also knew as she'd x-rayed me about 5 years previously and dug out the old ones). What the physio wanted was the soft tissue scan to see where the problems were associated with the bone damage. The radiographer rang the registrar and although I couldn't hear the words, the tenor of the conversation was clear and he wasn't budging. So the radiographer took one oblique X-ray (you don't see much with an normal orthogonal view) which I then had to wait to see the registrar to discuss. He looked at the x-ray and seemed perplexed about why it was oblique - I had to explain what he was seeing!!!! Hell, I know my title's doctor but it's not of the medical variety. This guy was about as much use as a car mechanic would have been (at the hospital - I'm not maligning the competance of mechanics in general with cars).

I actually wrote a letter to my GP describing the situation, with the request that he pass it on as appropriate. No idea what happened although the orthopedic registrar wasn't there a few months later when I needed an X-ray for a badly sprained ankle.

 

[rowan 46]

A couple of years ago I was having problems, I saw the doctor and a week later was in the hospital having tests a fortnight later started treatment for cancer. The treatment seems to have worked and I am still alive. There has been one more recurrance but all clear now. I am looking forward to getting back to full time work getting some of this blubber off me and I just wanted to say respect to the NHS it has been wonderful for me from the staff to the treatment all first class

 

[Berlinbybike]

I suppose we all have anecdotes on the lottery that the NHS can be. If you want a glimpse of what the free market offers - in the absence of anything else - consider the health system in the US. The words insane, obscene, ridiculous apply. If the NHS "reforms" continue, that's what we'll get.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I suppose we all have anecdotes on the lottery that the NHS can be. If you want a glimpse of what the free market offers - in the absence of anything else - consider the health system in the US. The words insane, obscene, ridiculous apply. If the NHS "reforms" continue, that's what we'll get.

If you analyse it, you could equally apply those words to the original NHS.

 

[screenman]

Why should the people who earn more pay more? seems a bit wrong to me, as they already support many non payers.

 

[rsvdaz]

i've had my experiences with the NHS and also paid for some private consultations to get the ball rolling..I do find that he who shouts loudest gets to the front of the queue first with regard to NHS.

for example...I had a knee injury in an accident I couldnt weight bear and nothing was showing on the x-ray..I was told to go home and rest and wait for an MRI scan..expect to get one in 12-16 weeks!.....by not weight baring I couldnt drive and therefore couldnt work and simply couldnt wait that amount a time for a diagnosis never mind the treatment.

So I get on the phone to radiologist and to be truthful made a nuisance of my-self - I got an MRi scan the following thursday.

Follow up appt to see an ortho - upyo 12 weeks - found out the knee man was doing private consulatation at the local private unit...2 - days for 95quid.

turns out I had a tibial-platua fracture, meniscus tears and a ruptured ACL

 

[Cris S]

I've been having a lot of pain in lower back, went to see my doctor on April 27th and told it maybe Sciatica and he made an appointment for the pain clinic at the local hospital
Hospital appointment 13[sup]th[/sup] May told I need a scan
Scan on 31[sup]th[/sup] May
next appointment 24[sup]th[/sup] August fror the pain clinic
It's a bloody good job I'm not working that's 17 weeks after I saw my own doctor, but I bet some people have been waiting much longer than I have

Hello

Can I just say that your problem is NOT life threatning and whilst you are waiting to have your back looked they the NHS
are saving many many lives on a daily basis. My wife has a life threatning condition and always but always gets an ambulance
when required and is seen immediately on arrival at the hospital which on occasions has saved her life.

I get really really angry when I hear people whinging because they have a bit of pain and have to wait a few weeks to be seen
about a pain

Think on all you NHS whingers.

Sorry but people who moan about the NHS really make me angry.

 

[lulubel]

Can I just say that your problem is NOT life threatning and whilst you are waiting to have your back looked they the NHS
are saving many many lives on a daily basis.

I know you weren't quoting me, but I want to respond to this anyway because I DO have a life threatening condition, and my experiences of the NHS have been far less than satisfactory.

I was even told by an asthma nurse (when I went for my initial health check at a new surgery after moving house) that I didn't have asthma, and to go away and stop wasting her time. I should have reported her, but I was young, and instead I left the surgery in tears. Fortunately, it wasn't the only surgery in the town, and I managed to register at the other one.

I'm very glad now that I now live in Spain and can just buy my inhalers over the counter at the pharmacy, and I also pay less than half the amount I paid for the NHS prescription charges in the UK.