Catheter ablation: NHS vs private?

[HowMyHeartSings]

Is it significantly safer to have a catheter ablation in an NHS hospital rather than a private one? I am fortunate to have health insurance through my work so I have the option to go private if it speeds things up. I understand it's a relatively safe procedure but wondered if anyone else had made this choice between private and NHS and what did you eventually decide? Do people also know if you can choose who does the procedure for you on the NHS, or is that out of your hands? Many thanks for your help.

[stagecoach]

For me, through the NHS, although you see a particular ep, who does your ablation depends on the rota for the day and in my case not the ep I saw. If you go private, in my area private ops are also performed in the same NHS hospital, private ward but common theatre.

Private certainly speeds things up, waiting list on NHS varies per region, my wait was 5 months.

[BobD Volunteer]

Since many of the top EPs also have private practice's (e g Prof Schilling-- Barts and London AF Centre) unless you have money to burn and impatient of NHS waiting lists there should be no difference in treatment. The caveat I would give , however, is that should you have complications post procedure and need additional treatment then the costs ramp up rapidly. For example "Hotel costs" of many hospitals could run between £500 and £1000 a night so if for example as in the case of two of my ablations your heart reacts badly and they want to keep you in another day or two till it settles then the sky becomes the limit. Yes it is a pretty safe procedure and complications are few ( mine were not complications as such just a simple reaction which is not uncommon) but it is worth putting in your risk./reward calculation.

[Ridley60]

BUPA offered me a cash back option if I had my Ablation in the NHS Hospital. But my EP recommended the private hospital where he practiced as the Catheter Lab was more up to date than the NHS.

I suggest you discuss the merits of each location with your EP.

[Barb1 in reply to Ridley60]

Yes, I had the same advice from my EP. I have spent long spells in both private and NHS and find that you are treated much more as an individual in private purely because they are better staffed. Aftercare is also more seamless and approachable in my experience. There has only been one time when my private consultant recommended that the NHS hospital could deal with me better and that was when I had sepsis (not related to any heart op.) I consider myself extremely fortunate that I have private health insurance - for now!

[CDreamer]

I think it really depends upon the area you live in whether or not you can specify who does your procedure and for that reason alone - private. The hospital I had my procedure in did NHS and private procedures in the same cath lab with the same staff with the same care, apart from the EP. Waiting lists would also be a significant factor and again they will vary, dependant upon where you live and where you choose to have your procedure but you will have choice both within NHS and private. I would choose a major centre which tend to be in the major regional cities.

[Hidden]

I've had both. No comparison. I found NHS care and expertise for the procedure instilled more confidence, less anxiety and better recovery although my ablation done privately was 10 years previously to the one just recently in December, so I guess technology and experience could equally have improved in private hospitals too. If I had the choice again, I'd go NHS despite the wait. Good luck with it.

[Hidden]

Just to add, it was the same EP at both hospitals.

[Ppiman]

The NHS in Leicester allow the local private hospitals to use their new ablation suite on days it’s not used by NHS patients. The charge is in excess of £10k per procedure and I should think significantly helps to subsidise the hospital’s running costs.

Steve

[wilsond]

You can be referred to consultant of your choice through nhs x

[HowMyHeartSings in reply to wilsond]

Are you guaranteed to get them?

[CDreamer in reply to HowMyHeartSings]

Depends on the area - where I live - no.

[wilsond in reply to HowMyHeartSings]

I did see the person I wanted to.. but the chances of him doing the proceedure were not guaranteed,could be any of his team

[Kingslip]

If you are going privately I would only go with a hospital that has a private wing within an NHS setting. If things go horribly wrong, as they did with my ablation, in the private setting there is no cardio thoracic team who may be in theatre at the time an emergency situation arises, as it did with me. If I had been in a private hospital I would not be sending this reply. What happened to me, thank goodness, is relatively rare. Thank God there was a team just coming out of theatre and saved my life! Having had ablations before, I didn’t even consider any problems arising. I am sure all will be fine, but do you want to take the chance. One thing is for sure, if I had been in a private hospital, I would not have lived as, they wouldn’t have had the expertise to deal with an emergency situation.

Cover all possibilities. This way you can go in knowing you have done all you can to give yourself the best chances. All the best and I’m sure things will be ok.

[bonnie54]

Mu ablation was paid for by private health insurance but done in the lab at the John Radcliffe in Oxford. The benefit for me was that the EP did it himself, rather than another EP he was training. I put the success of the procedure, 10 years now with no drugs and no AF, down to having the experienced EP perform the procedure. I may just have been lucky I suppose. 😊

[SJB1234]

I had my ablation done 3weeks ago at St George’s Tooting great service and the Cath Lab was modern.

[Slim2018]

I had mine done on the nhs because a slot became available and got BUPA cash back, which I had never heard of, and which paid for my customisations on my Harley over the winter. I had no idea about the cash back until I rang BUPA to get authorisation for private follow ups and they told me about it and paid me out. A close mate who doesn’t have private health but is loaded, paid privately and had the same consultant in the same hospital. Our local Spire doesn’t even have a unit to do these ablations I suspect in case the very, very rare situation occurs which requires immediate surgery. I stick with BUPA every time at renewal precisely because they never jerk you around and are always most accommodating.

[Coco51]

Had both ablations at St George's each with the same excellent EP. Each time there was a 5 month wait. So I was tempted to go privately. Thank goodness I did not. The second ablation went well till like BobD I had complications. Not life threatening, but I had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic and my BP dropped alarmingly. So they kept me in for a couple of days at first, and then I got a chest infection so I ended up there for a week! That would have been expensive in a private hospital.