Going private?

seven-day-weekend

Does anyone know the procedure for seeing a Consultant privately? Do you have to be referred by your Doctor or can you just make an appointment yourself?

At one time you could pay to see the Consultant but then have any treatment on the NHS. Is this still possible?

Any advice thankfully received.

Tiglath

I've only ever seen a consultant privately following a GP referral; I get my GP to write a Dear Sir/Madam letter asking for investigations and then I have to find the consultant myself, as my private health insurance has a list of consultants whose fees they'll cover.

mumps

I don't think you have to be referred, I am pretty sure you can arrange appointments at our local private hospital without seeing a GP first, I have done it but we had seen the Consultant before on NHS and I phoned the hospital and spoke to his secretary and she had the file sent overfrom NHS hospital to private hospital, this was for one of my children I have never had private treatment myself.

I think seeing someone privately and then having treatment on NHS depends on the treatment. I think having an op would be seen as queue jumping and not allowed, on the other hand for my child (well not a child now but he was then) we saw Consultant privately and he wrote to GP who gave us an NHS presecription for the treatment advised. Hope that helps.

margaretclare

It depends. If it's a private hospital you may be able to arrange a 10-minute free consultation, for certain procedures. Otherwise, if you have a private hospital near you, phone them and ask.

Fire_Fox

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

At one time you could pay to see the Consultant but then have any treatment on the NHS. Is this still possible?

Any advice thankfully received.

Still possible, but they don't have to take your private consultant's opinion as red they can still insist on the NHS consultant seeing you. And you cannot queue jump, you would have to have the same wait between initial GP appointment and, say, operation as any NHS patient.

picklekin

It can be very useful though to have a consultation (£200-£300), I often have a hard time making doctors take things I say seriously (I feel I often have to overplay things a bit to get NHS doctors to listen to me) so if you see a consultant and get a genuine opinion you can go back to your GP to try and make them listen. Beats the general "go away and see if it clears up" approach they usually take!

pimento

My insurers will only cover a private consultation of referred by my GP.

seven-day-weekend

picklekin wrote: »

It can be very useful though to have a consultation (£200-£300), I often have a hard time making doctors take things I say seriously (I feel I often have to overplay things a bit to get NHS doctors to listen to me) so if you see a consultant and get a genuine opinion you can go back to your GP to try and make them listen. Beats the general "go away and see if it clears up" approach they usually take!

This is actually why my husband wants to see a consultant, he feels his GP isn't taking his ailment seriously.

He did this before in the 1990s, after he had a really awful cough lasting six months, and the GP just kept giving him course after course of general antibiotics. The consultant examined him, shook his head, said 'can't your GP diagnose pneumonia?', prescribed the correct antibiotics and cleared it up in two weeks.

seven-day-weekend

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, we have a Nuffield hospital just up the road, I will ring and ask them.

However,my husband's ailment got so bad when we were away from home dogsitting last week that he went to a drop-in clinic at a hospital and the Dr there has prescribed some tablets which appear to be clearing it up. Let's hope so.