How to get treatment?
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thepurplepixie wrote: »If there was say a 3 month waiting list to see the Consultant on the NHS and then a 9 month wait for the operation then you did jump 3 months by paying for a private consultation. People who couldn't afford a private consultation were behind you in the queue and personally I don't think that is fair. If they put you in the queue where you would have been without the private consultation then that is perfectly fair.
Fair? Who said life was fair?!0 -
Fair? Who said life was fair?!
I'm sure most people, if they or their loved ones had a serious condition, and they could get treatment quicker by 'jumping the queue', they wouldn't care much about fairness.(AKA HRH_MUngo)
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton0 -
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GPs may well ask whether you have private healthcare as the private referral can save them money to spend on other patients who don't have it. In some cases (breast clinic is one example) it may take longer to see the consultant privately than on the NHS as it isn't a daily clinic in many private hospitals. Our local private hospital also has a longer waiting its for some gynae consultants than the NHS does...
I have, in the past, had private treatment and been referred back (urgently) to the NHS by a consultant who told me that the issues they'd uncovered would be better dealt with in the NHS system. Luckily most consultants try to get NHS and private treatment to work together. Sadly, with the way things are going, private insurance is going to be more and more necessary.0 -
thepurplepixie wrote: »If there was say a 3 month waiting list to see the Consultant on the NHS and then a 9 month wait for the operation then you did jump 3 months by paying for a private consultation. People who couldn't afford a private consultation were behind you in the queue and personally I don't think that is fair. If they put you in the queue where you would have been without the private consultation then that is perfectly fair.
No, I'm pretty sure I was in the 'correct' part if the queue.
Btw: would you miss out on meeting your first grandchild.? Wouldn't you worry about staying in the USA with a medical problem? I needed reassurance.Member #14 of SKI-ers club
Words, words, they're all we have to go by!.
(Pity they are mangled by this autocorrect!)0 -
Greenbee is right......most consultants work on the basis of clinical need. They will often combine private and nhs treatment if necessary.
And if that combination saves the NHS some money then everyone is a winner.0 -
pollypenny wrote: »No, I'm pretty sure I was in the 'correct' part if the queue.
Btw: would you miss out on meeting your first grandchild.? Wouldn't you worry about staying in the USA with a medical problem? I needed reassurance.
Meeting my first grandchild is irrelevant, if you leapfrogged the queue by paying to avoid the first queue you have queue jumped. If someone had been waiting 11 weeks to see that Consultant and you saw the Consultant immediately then if it was a 12 week wait to see the Consultant you entered the 2nd part of the queue a week ahead of the person who had been waiting 11 weeks longer than you. The fact that you needed reassurance wouldn't make the people patiently waiting their turn any happier. Are you sure you waited the time for the operation plus the time you would have waited to see the Consultant? I doubt it.
Years ago they talked about stopping this when negotiating contracts. My understanding is that the senior doctors didn't want that to happen as it would remove a reason for people to pay out a relatively small amount to move up the NHS queue.
Interestingly they didn't allow this with dental treatment, don't know the situation now. I had a dentist who combined NHS and private funding to save patients money and he was struck off. The system was you had private or NHS treatment, lets saw it was £10 for a NHS filling and the NHS paid another £20 but you could have a better private filling for £50. The dentist would claim the £20 NHS fee and you would pay £30 so costing you £20 more than the NHS filling but £20 less than the private filling. This wasn't allowed and yet you can do a mix and match with private/NHS treatment with doctors.0 -
thepurplepixie wrote: »Meeting my first grandchild is irrelevant, if you leapfrogged the queue by paying to avoid the first queue you have queue jumped. If someone had been waiting 11 weeks to see that Consultant and you saw the Consultant immediately then if it was a 12 week wait to see the Consultant you entered the 2nd part of the queue a week ahead of the person who had been waiting 11 weeks longer than you. The fact that you needed reassurance wouldn't make the people patiently waiting their turn any happier. Are you sure you waited the time for the operation plus the time you would have waited to see the Consultant? I doubt it.
Years ago they talked about stopping this when negotiating contracts. My understanding is that the senior doctors didn't want that to happen as it would remove a reason for people to pay out a relatively small amount to move up the NHS queue.
Interestingly they didn't allow this with dental treatment, don't know the situation now. I had a dentist who combined NHS and private funding to save patients money and he was struck off. The system was you had private or NHS treatment, lets saw it was £10 for a NHS filling and the NHS paid another £20 but you could have a better private filling for £50. The dentist would claim the £20 NHS fee and you would pay £30 so costing you £20 more than the NHS filling but £20 less than the private filling. This wasn't allowed and yet you can do a mix and match with private/NHS treatment with doctors.
I personally don't see anything wrong with mix and match. It's not as though it means that people who can't afford to pay don't get acceptable treatment. It just means that you have paid to get better or quicker.(AKA HRH_MUngo)
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton0 -
lessonlearned wrote: »Greenbee is right......most consultants work on the basis of clinical need. They will often combine private and nhs treatment if necessary.
And if that combination saves the NHS some money then everyone is a winner.
No not everyone is a winner, the person who has waited to see the Consultant on the NHS gets their treatment delayed. Now being delayed by one surgical procedure isn't that big a deal but is it only one person pushing in? Highly doubtful. What if you are waiting for non urgent treatment, obviously emergency treatment jumps the queue, you have waited 3 months to see the Consultant and you then wait 9 months surgery and let us say that your surgery has been directly delayed by people who have jumped the queue. You get to the head of the queue just as the Consultant is taking a months holiday so you go back again. He gets back from holiday and there are some urgent cases waiting so you go back another couple of weeks. So now you have waited the 3 months plus 8 months that is the NHS waiting lists, then another 4 weeks for queue jumpers and then circumstances add another six weeks. Are you telling me that because someone was able to pay £150 to see a Consultant privately that the NHS should jump them 3 months plus the other delays ahead of you? If people want private treatment that is great but not this system which is plain nasty.
How much do you think one Consultation saves the NHS, it is having the treatment privately that saves the money.0 -
seven-day-weekend wrote: »I personally don't see anything wrong with mix and match. It's not as though it means that people who can't afford to pay don't get acceptable treatment. It just means that you have paid to get better or quicker.
Nothing wrong with mix and match as long as you don't push into a queue. You should be paying to see the Consultant faster and probably in a nicer clinic, effectively you are slipping someone £150 to jump ahead of the people who have to wait their turn.
I think it is immoral and if you don't agree then turn it round and think how you would feel if you were the person waiting to see the Consultant and you could see the treatment list growing because people paid to jump that part of the queue.0
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