Private Medical Care

[ASB]

Treatment probably depends on the "normality" of your case. Arguably with private care you get easier access to more specialised folk.

My opthalmic NHS surgeon referred me to a speciific consultant at Moorfields. With NHS waits my apponitment was originally scheduled for October, however I discovered my medical insurance had no restriciton on pre-existing conditions.

It was therefore a trivial matter to arrange a private appointment at his personal clinic in my convenience.

As a result of this he has referred me to a neurologist (or rather yet another one), This is a guy who specialises in my possible condition. Had I still been an NHS patient this would not have happened, I would have first been referred to a neurologist at Moorfields who would then have referred me to this chap.

Mind you he's nearly 3 months for an initial private appointment, lord knows how long it is on the NHS.

[malvolio]

Fungus...

You are making the usual fundamental mistake. The people delivering the treatment are the same - there is not a second layer of highly-paid surgeons and other specialists waiting in the wings for private work: there are some, but the majority have to do a proportion of NHS work.

Where the difference lies is in waiting time and access. And apart from anything else, the consultants are getting the run-around from the NHS management (for whom they have little but contempt) and tend not to take the cooperative approach. Paid work, however - that's a different matter...

[Clog II The Avenger]

You can get your sex change done for a decent price and work in a holiday in Thailand. HTH.

This might be the answer to fairer divorce settlements. Get the sex change first and then get a divorce.

[The Lone Gunman]

This might be the answer to fairer divorce settlements. Get the sex change first and then get a divorce.

There is a choice for the future that the feminista will like. You get to keep either your fortune or your goolies! The richest people in the world will all be women.

[Fungus]

Fungus...

You are making the usual fundamental mistake. The people delivering the treatment are the same - there is not a second layer of highly-paid surgeons and other specialists waiting in the wings for private work: there are some, but the majority have to do a proportion of NHS work.

Where the difference lies is in waiting time and access. And apart from anything else, the consultants are getting the run-around from the NHS management (for whom they have little but contempt) and tend not to take the cooperative approach. Paid work, however - that's a different matter...

No I'm not making the usual mistake. I know full well that they are the same people. The point is that a) private means faster and b) private means more chance of seeing someone. That difference can be the difference between life and death or life and serious disability, and most people do not realise that as they hold to the quaint idea that the NHS is as good as private.

Fungus

[malvolio]

And that's what I said - initially you pay for access, not expertise. And afterwards you get better care in a better environment.

But going back to your examples, in the first case the fault is not in access to the constultant, the real fault was in not diagnosing an acute condition: had that been done, a consultant would have been found. Perhaps you should be suing the GP for malpractice.

In the second case the fault is the Government's targets, that forces chronic, non-debilitating conditions to the back of the queue. It's the same problem that leaves expensive heart cases to wait while the hospital knocks out half a cheap non-urgent ops to keep their funding straight.