Wait times for self funded patients at NHS Clinics

[SUMMERTIME02]

Hey all,

I have a question in regards to NHS clinic wait times.

If we are paying for our treatment (private), is it the same wait time as NHS funded patients?

I don't know why I assumed there would be some priority to self funded patients, as I remember reading about it somewhere but now I'm not sure as can't find anything on it.

I feel like the funded cycle moved quicker and now we are paying for it, its just slow. I've been told there's staff sickness/ not enough time for nurses to upload my case notes? like what?! How are they straight up telling me they upload patient notes as infill work.

My clinic is just so disorganised too, depending on who you talk to, they either tell me to call back after a week or so, or they book me an appointment right away.

Feeling super frustrated

[HollyT7]

ours were both pretty good, funded a little longer but only because we needed tests etc, our frozen rolled on from this and was basically as soon as we could have it. Our 2nd frozen was self funded and started whenever as it was just a case of started meds. Our clinic have been great, they are a private clinic that take on NHS cases as do others in our area as the hospitals here don't do ivf x

[Luka_Ru]

I am at an NHS clinic that also takes private patients. We are eligible for NHS treatment but self funded because we were worried about waiting times. We've basically had no waiting at all - only thing was a two week wait for a coordination appointment for stims and FET, so depending on cycle start dates that might set you back a month if the dates didn't match well. I know a lady who is NHS funded at same clinic and had to wait a long time for the initial consult, then was also added to a waiting list for FET after freeze all egg collection. So private does seem to be quicker at our clinic.

But their organisation and communication seems to be just as bad as for private as it is generally in the NHS (I work for the NHS!).

[SUMMERTIME02 in reply to Luka_Ru]

Yes i think thats what the problem is. If they were more organised i feel it would be processed much quicker. I think i will keep chasing things up for now x

[Solly-44]

At mine you get the worst of both worlds - we pay but with NHS waiting times! 😩

I do get it though, it would be really hard for those who couldn’t afford to self fund to be constantly bumped to the back of the queue for people who were paying. I’ve considered moving our embryos to a private clinic but it’s weighing up the wait with the extra cost xx

[SUMMERTIME02 in reply to Solly-44]

I feel conflicted as my husband is saying to look elsewhere but the staff at my nhs clinic are generally lovely and i feel comfortable here, just things are super slow x

[ZessB]

Hi, at my clinic, which is a NHS clinic that also welcomes self-funded patients, the waiting time is the same for everyone but there was a turnaround time of around 3 months between cycles, which I felt was perfect as it gave my body and mind time to recover. Good luck!

[Weareback2]

I don't know this for sure and purley only wondering but with covid and there being delays i do wonder if the NHS have certain targets to meet in terms of people being offered treatment to try and catch up. Again i don't know for sure just i know with my work we do have target to try and meet to get back to a level of normality, so wondered if the NHS are the same?!