Private Healthcare

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navidson

navidson

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Was hoping to start up a bit of a discussion about Private Healthcare in here and people's opinions of it

My dad passed away last year after having his heart surgery delayed a number of times (the last couple of times due to Covid). We are seeing record numbers of people on hospital waiting lists awaiting urgent surgeries and the NHS is at breaking point due to underfunding.

I am a complete dunce when it comes to understanding the world of private healthcare. Is it not a mutually beneficial thing for people who can afford to access private healthcare to do that, therefore opening a 'slot' for somebody else within the NHS? Or are the people accessing private healthcare merely 'jumping the queue' and using their monetary priviledge to gain an unfair advantage?

I have no idea if there are private medical facilities which are used only for subscribers, or if private care is based within 'public' hospitals?

I get the impression that people accessing this care are seen as 'scabs' but i'm not really sure how they are portrayed within society?

Could anybody enlighten me on the finer details?
 

It does alleviate pressure from the NHS- but jumping the queue - especially with lifesaving work, is toryism at its worst.

Perhaps the queues wouldn't be as long if surgeons weren't taken away from NHS operating theatres to earn a quick buck at a different clinic.

Also if there were no private health care perhaps our wealthy overlords, caught in the same queue as we plebs, would work harder at properly funding the NHS.
 
navidson said:
Was hoping to start up a bit of a discussion about Private Healthcare in here and people's opinions of it

My dad passed away last year after having his heart surgery delayed a number of times (the last couple of times due to Covid). We are seeing record numbers of people on hospital waiting lists awaiting urgent surgeries and the NHS is at breaking point due to underfunding.

I am a complete dunce when it comes to understanding the world of private healthcare. Is it not a mutually beneficial thing for people who can afford to access private healthcare to do that, therefore opening a 'slot' for somebody else within the NHS? Or are the people accessing private healthcare merely 'jumping the queue' and using their monetary priviledge to gain an unfair advantage?

I have no idea if there are private medical facilities which are used only for subscribers, or if private care is based within 'public' hospitals?

I get the impression that people accessing this care are seen as 'scabs' but i'm not really sure how they are portrayed within society?

Could anybody enlighten me on the finer details?
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I know there is a private wing at my local hospital . The hospital actually pay the company who owns the wing to lighten the load and take some of the NHS patients .
I could go all political but we all know about what's wrong with the system and who's to blame .
I am really sorry for your loss mate .
 
navidson said:
Was hoping to start up a bit of a discussion about Private Healthcare in here and people's opinions of it

My dad passed away last year after having his heart surgery delayed a number of times (the last couple of times due to Covid). We are seeing record numbers of people on hospital waiting lists awaiting urgent surgeries and the NHS is at breaking point due to underfunding.

I am a complete dunce when it comes to understanding the world of private healthcare. Is it not a mutually beneficial thing for people who can afford to access private healthcare to do that, therefore opening a 'slot' for somebody else within the NHS? Or are the people accessing private healthcare merely 'jumping the queue' and using their monetary priviledge to gain an unfair advantage?

I have no idea if there are private medical facilities which are used only for subscribers, or if private care is based within 'public' hospitals?

I get the impression that people accessing this care are seen as 'scabs' but i'm not really sure how they are portrayed within society?

Could anybody enlighten me on the finer details?
Click to expand...
I have private healthcare through work and used it for the first time last year when I needed surgery to reconnect my torn bicep tendon.

I had the accident in March 2020 and although I was in a lot of pain I decided not to go an NHS hospital due to the COVID situation.

Due to the pain not going away I eventually decided to go down the PHC route and got an MRI scan straight away followed by an appointment with a specialist.

Surgery was booked quickly and it did the job followed up with 4 months of physio.

The surgeon, his staff and indeed the operating theatres in the private hospital were used for NHS work 9-6 then private surgery was after 6pm. So I didn’t feel like I was using up COVID resources.

If I’d gone down the NHS route I reckon I’d still be awaiting my op and I’d still be in pain.
 

Its become a bit of a necessary evil over here. While the Irish health service is excellent once you are in it the waiting lists for treatments are disgraceful.

I got health insurance years ago with work and have kept it up since leaving.
 
"Is it not a mutually beneficial thing for people who can afford to access private healthcare to do that, therefore opening a 'slot' for somebody else within the NHS?"

This was my understanding too? and the reason I recently signed up to it through work. Hoping I never need it tbh, but watching some of the choices they have to make in recent episodes of Hospital on BBC2 I'd rather not be adding to that pressure.
 
chrismpw said:
It does alleviate pressure from the NHS- but jumping the queue - especially with lifesaving work, is toryism at its worst.

Perhaps the queues wouldn't be as long if surgeons weren't taken away from NHS operating theatres to earn a quick buck at a different clinic.

Also if there were no private health care perhaps our wealthy overlords, caught in the same queue as we plebs, would work harder at properly funding the NHS.
Click to expand...

It`s really not that simple though.

Up until my youngest lad was born I`d have agreed with you.

Due to his disability and respiratory problems that are part of his disablity, he was hospitalised 12 times within the first 18 mths of his life.

The average length of treatment would be vary between 5 days and 3 weeks. ( a few were touch and a go )

We actually kept an overnight bag by the door, as he was in and out of hospital that much.

Each time someone would have to stay with him for the duration of his stay.

I`m not in anyway blaming the NHS, but they had a " set " way of dealing with his problems, which they wouldn`t deviate from the protocol and they wouldn`t bend at all with his treatment, which clearly wasn`t working.

Out of desperation, we paid to see a consultant in Manchester, who had a son with the exact same problems and had become a self taught expert.

He wrote a treatment plan, for our GP, outlining in fine detail a course of treatment and medication.

This was to be presented to the GP and the hospital if he became ill again.

The GP was very unhappy when presented with the treatment plan, as it went against accepted protocol. He couldn`t argue with it though, as the consultant was one of the worlds leading experts in my sons condition.

Once he started the treatment plan, he never became so ill that he ever needed a hospital admission again.

TLDR : It`s the best 400 quid I ever spent.
 

COYBL25 said:
It`s really not that simple though.

Up until my youngest lad was born I`d have agreed with you.

Due to his disability and respiratory problems that are part of his disablity, he was hospitalised 12 times within the first 18 mths of his life.

The average length of treatment would be vary between 5 days and 3 weeks. ( a few were touch and a go )

We actually kept an overnight bag by the door, as he was in and out of hospital that much.

Each time someone would have to stay with him for the duration of his stay.

I`m not in anyway blaming the NHS, but they had a " set " way of dealing with his problems, which they wouldn`t deviate from the protocol and they wouldn`t bend at all with his treatment, which clearly wasn`t working.

Out of desperation, we paid to see a consultant in Manchester, who had a son with the exact same problems and had become a self taught expert.

He wrote a treatment plan, for our GP, outlining in fine detail a course of treatment and medication.

This was to be presented to the GP and the hospital if he became ill again.

The GP was very unhappy when presented with the treatment plan, as it went against accepted protocol. He couldn`t argue with it though, as the consultant was one of the worlds leading experts in my sons condition.

Once he started the treatment plan, he never became so ill that he ever needed a hospital admission again.

TLDR : It`s the best 400 quid I ever spent.
Click to expand...
I'm glad it worked for you.

However - if there were no private health care this consultant would be employed by and benefitting the NHS with his expertise.
 
I had to have an operation to fix an issue I'd had with my ear for years. Went the NHS about it and told the waiting time to see a consultant was on average 4 months, then there would have been a waiting time for the op on top of that. I went to Spire and 2 weeks later I'd had the operation, it cost quite a bit of money but it's probably he best money I have ever spent.
 
There are pros and cons to both sides. Yes, it does potentially free up nhs resources for those who need it, but as more and more people get private healthcare, less and less resources will go into the nhs.

Australia is somewhere between the uk and us - we have a half decent public health system, but private health insurance is also very prevalent. Whenever one of my kids have been admitted to a public hospital, they ask if I want to switch to private (in the same hospital) which offers a few small perks for us, and additional funding for the hospital.

In an ideal world, healthcare would be free, and freely available, for all. The UK is renowned for having the best national health service in the world, it would be such a shame to see it fade away and replaced by private hospitals
 
chrismpw said:
I'm glad it worked for you.

However - if there were no private health care this consultant would be employed by and benefitting the NHS with his expertise.
Click to expand...

He worked as an NHS consultant, however due to the exact same obstacles he`d faced with his own son, he decided that there must be a better way to do things, so he did all that he could to help kids like his son and my lad, outside of the NHS.

I`d have very happily paid him anything he wanted to make my lad better.
 

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