How to get an appointment privately?

[Melon365]

I know I am in the very lucky position of being able to pay for treatement but I don't know how to do it. I know which BSGE centre I want to go to but how do I get an appointment with them?

[Purple_Badgers]

Hi , the trouble is that 99% of BSGE accredited centres are NHS based and therefore you can’t get a private appointment at the centre. You can get a private appointment with an individual endo specialist who also does work at one of the BSGE centres, but you won’t get the standard of treatment/team of experts that you get in the centres. Sometimes people pay for the initial private consultation then get transferred to the consultant’s NHS list. (This could possibly help speed up your treatment,) I am in a similar position- I could pay for private, but I’m waiting for NHS instead. Incidentally, I haven’t had great experience of private healthcare for gynae, so have been put off by handing out my hard earned cash only to be treated like trash anyway! Perhaps you can check who works at the BSGE centre you’ve chosen and see if they also do private? (Googling them usually works!) Wishing you the best of luck, whatever happens xxx

[Melon365 in reply to Purple_Badgers]

Thanks Purple Badgers

It sucks that you have had bad experiences and Im sorry for that.

My NHS experiences have been worse than private ones so I want to go private. I can choose which doc I see and it wont take as long, hopefully.

Thank you for your advice and good luck! Xx

[Avourneen]

First you need to research which gynae you want. You could do this by checking which BSGE centres have doctors who also do private work. The most well known "star " private gynaes in the UK are based in London and pretty easy to look up online I think a couple have specialist private endo treatment centres. Then just phone up or e mail and make an appointment. There is a Facebook site for people with endo and you can get honest reviews of individual surgeons on there. The same very few names come up repeatedly for people who have had good experiences.

[Melon365 in reply to Avourneen]

Thank you!

[LisaAmazona]

I'm going private with my daughter because she is in so much pain. Like you, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do this. There have certainly been other times in my life when it would have been impossible. She's seen the head of the closest NHS BSGE endo clinic. He saw her via Nuffield. What's great is that this doctor was also very familiar with POTS (which my daughter also has and which many doctors are clueless about) and has worked with her NHS POTS consultant (at same hospital) regularly. He was really good and she's scheduled for a lap on 2nd April. As far as not having a larger team around, I don't really think that's an issue. Think most endo clinics only have 3 or 4 people involved, mostly a lead gynae and nurses. Also, as you can see, the consultant was very able to work with daughter's POTS consultant within the NHS.

[Melon365 in reply to LisaAmazona]

Yeah it is so lucky to be able to do it, I am using my disability benefit - gotta put it to good use! Good luck! Hope the lap goes well. Xx

[SVGee]

I went private and I had an amazing doctor and care experience. I looked on Spire website and you can narrow down by specialism. I then did my research into the consultants before deciding who I wanted to see. Good luck xx

[Melon365 in reply to SVGee]

Thank you! Xx

[Wrecklesham]

Hi I was lucky enough to have private health care until it suddenly shot up in price when I turned seventy. Normally if there was a problem I would see the doctor first and then ask them to refer me. If they were not prepared to do so I often got in touch with one of the private hospitals and asked them how they liked their referrals to be made if a doctor did not want to refer me privately.