Then my answer would be Yes....I think they would do more if it went Private....
Why do I think this? Well to me, it's the society of today, when everything all comes down to money...
The NHS are not willing to spend money, then when it goes private, there won't be any money issues from them, the ones who will suffer will be the PATIENTS...
Your comments are welcome....
Joe
I lived abroad years ago, we had no choice but to pay for private health, it was the equivalent of 0.5% of our monthly salary. It meant we got free eye glasses every three years, had an annual medical, when you saw a GP and needed to see a Consultant, we were referred within 2 working days i.e. see GP Monday, saw the Consultant Wednesday. So for workers it was cheaper than our N.I. and we got a very responsive treatment and specialists literally within 48 hours. Been on one waiting list for 48 weeks, waiting on another for 82 weeks. On the other hand if you didn't work and had no income had to pay for each individual treatment. Oh hospital treatments were free admissions. So swings and roundabouts/pros and cons with everything.
I fractured my toe last August. I'm still waiting for nhs appointment. Since then as I've been 'walking' on it fragments of bones have become trapped in the joint. Saw private consultant 3 weeks ago and surgical repair a week later. No wonder we see complex regional pain syndromes! Efficient treatment in my view would prevent this. 
Private means a longer time wiht the consultant and you are not shoved out after a maximum 10 minutes. You seem to see the top professional at teh hospital and not someone else when booked in to see the ,,,, one you normally choose. System works as you are paying for the advice so they have to do better at answering your questions
Looking at these answer's I can see that we all need to take more control of our own lives, Ifyou are not getting appointment's for surgery or other procedures the it is not alway's the doctor,s or surgeon falt as I found. it is to do with lax bookings departments or secretaries who have not done there job or even worse you have been lost in there paperwork because someone put your paper's on the wrong pile, THIS HAPPEN'S, BELIEVE ME. Do not be afraid to call these department's and make them tell you your situation and if you are not satisfied with the answer take it further either back to your GP or directly to the surgeon via his secretary, they all have one. do not be afraid to show your feelings, these backroom staff are not infalable and WE are paying for them to keep our files and carry out the instructions of there boss. I found that my papers had "gone astray" when I told my consultant he apollogised profusely and dictated a letter in front of me that left that person know in no uncertain terms that they had to get there finger out and get me the very next available appointment. Go stick up for yourself its your right.
Sorry its me again, I forgot to say don't forget you have the right to CHOOSE AND BOOK, if you do not know what this is as your surgery or google it.
Imho The slow process of getting treatment leads to stress and depression.
There is talk of patient choice? I've never had choose and book. On the plus side my new consultant is great I wish had been able to see somone like that years ago! How many people get the wait and see treatment or are told they have ibs when they have underlyin g problems? I don't want to be bitter or sad but I think people get lost in the system these days.
Just another thought, sometimes when I'm abroad I think we're so lucky and that maybe I takethe nhs. Service for granted when others have to pay everytime tosee someone or for an test that needs doing, but it s still a slow process and there is a loss of control as someone already said- no wonder we ask questions and search for answers on the internet as we are lost in the system a lot. In the future I think if it was private there would be a consequence of more litigation, as bills got higher peoplemight seek for claims etc
I am proud of the NHS - it must have changed so many lives over the years, its an equal system. (For the most part). Other countries should try it. I think this society has changed a lot since it was started though and it needs to be Fit for purpose
Sorry if I'm rambling! I hope the NHS can be saved and grow with society's needs. X
I believe that a mixture of private and NHS is better than what we have now. I pay for part of my medical treatment. It is vastly superior to anything that the NHS can offer.
I see my local optician on a regular basis because my father had glaucoma. The service this optician offers is far superior than the eye department of the local hospital. He sees me at the appointment time and I recieve a very good service. This is in contrast to the eye department of the local hospital where I have seen the eye specialist about 3 hours after the time my appointment was set.
My PCT pays for McTimony chiropractic treatment up to 12 times a year. I see my chiropractic about once every six weeks. There are occassions when my long term disibility flares up. When this happens I see the chiropracter within 5 days. An appointment to see an NHS physiotherapist takes about three months.
Many people pay for chiropractic treatment because it works. It does not work for everyone.
It is time that we need to be realistic that for good health we need a mixture of private and NHS. The problem is how to determine what private treatment to select and pay for.
Thanks johnsmith for your comment... I don't think I could see the end of the NHS, there does need to be changes, as the nhs of today just cannot cope with the demand of patients in the U.K...
Do I think it's going to get any better, then that's a no...
Am not for going private, as I know with myself being out of work now for 6yrs, with no sign of getting back soon, then I will struggle to get help that I need...
I do think that yes it well help some people to split between nhs and private, do I think it's for me...No.
A few year's back, when I was asked to go and see a Neurologist, he refused to operate on me through funding by the NHS, then he said that he would operate privately for £3.500... did I have the money to do it privately, then no. Did I need this operation then yes. Due to the fact that it wouldn't be funded by the nhs, my condition has now deteriorated since then, this was 4yrs ago in 2009...
In Aug 2012, I saw a orthopedic surgeon, he said that with my condition now being what it is, having a operation would be a higher risk than it would of been in 2009...
Now, I've to live to the best I can with this condition that I have. Is this the outcome I wanted, then No...
Up until 2006/7, when I have been working all my days since I left school at 16... then suddenly in 06/07, I had a industrial accident, then my life changed for life...
Do I feel let down with the nhs, then yes, I worked all my days, paid my stamp, and look at me today...from where am standing I have been let down...
My life has changed, and will it change again over these next few years, yes...hopefully it won't...
Joe.
I'm not sure that things would necessarily be better if ALL health care was privately funded. Things still cost money and would have to be funded. As someone who works in health, proving services to the NHS, I know the battles we have in making sure that services get funded and not cut. People I know who work in private hospitals still face many of the same issues as the NHS does, including busy clinics where patients have been kept waiting for a long time to see the consultant.
I also wonder what would happen with conditions such as chronic pain? The conditions with quick fixes would perhaps be well-resourced but maybe less-so for conditions that don't respond text-book style to medication & treatment. I struggled to get life insurance for a while because I did not have a reason for my pain for a long time, and I imagine it might be the same trying to get a decent level of private health cover.
The NHS is generally a good thing. I am glad that I have been given the opportunity to try out treatments for "free". Most of them haven't worked - you could say I was a drain on the tax-payer if you were being really mean - but chronic pain has no quick fix & there is often no single way to sort it out. Imagine having to pay privately for everything. I don't know if you would be treated any differently all of the time - I've had private and NHS dentistry & can't tell the difference, if anything the NHS dentist works harder at preventative treatment.
Yes, things go wrong (I have been on the receiving end of that too) and it is not good. But there are things have gone right. There are times when my family have needed urgent medical care & I have been incredibly grateful for the NHS.
Hi
I have had experience of both the NHS and private patient as I had private medical insurance with my job. I had a bad experience with the private sector after a routine operation and ended up seeing the same surgeon which had operated on me at the local A&E.
I also had a cartilage operation under the private sector, the consultant couldn't do enough for me, even introducing his 4 year old son to me but when I had a follow up appointment on the NHS he couldn't even be bothered to see me and I saw a colleague of his instead. In my opinion the only thing which is good with the private sector is that you are seen pretty quickly.
Going to the pain clinic this evening at my local NHS hospital!!!. Wish me luck.
HELLO
When I was young I could not get a diagnosis at the doctors surgery so I saw a rhumatologist and a chiropractor the pysio cost twenty pound for 10 mins that went on for ten appointments the consultant was fifty pound for 15mins, yes I got my diagnosis, yes the GP
found out what was wrong it was very expensive in 1987 and I proved my point. After that the doctor sat up and I never needed to go private again in fact the NHS sent me to a private clinic as my problems took a turn for the worse,
What you do not realize is the doctors I saw were seen later in the nhs so basically there was a form of continuity. my treatments were the same with the exception of the pysio.
Basically you do not get any better treatment going private the only thing that I noticed was I was seen sooner, the treatment no different and you had too pay for each course of treatment. I WAS LUCKY i had a private health insurance that I still have from my last employer, and I still pay into it and get restricted payments when I go to dentists etc.
What I am trying to say is that the NHS has changed now the hospitals are privately built and are killing the NHS by a thousand cuts, no I would prefer the NHS you want too see the American system that is dire, The system can be looked at on the web.free for all to see.
All that is private most, is bad. Can you imagine how much our meds cost look on the web,I priced mine it was an eye opener. DO NOT THROW THE BABY WITH THE BATHWATER
ALL THE BEST
BOB
Trouble is we have become complacent, and we are all to blame because we have been brought up with the security of the health service, the doctors, because they have a continuous supply of patient's, and the doctor's get frustrated when they have no answers to never ending compaint's; so I would say to them that it's because of the success of our health service that people are confident to come forward, because in the begining the poor' (most of us) had to be ordered to go to a doctor with very serious (for society) illnesses that were rampant, polio and the like, and being paid handsomely the doctors have no complaint's, and I get so angry when I think that the gov't want's to hand over control to the doctor's, (well that's ok if you have a decent doctor) but what if they are a right wing bigot' and have delusion's of granduer, No' no, our health service has many fault's, but the fault's are mostly to do with perception.
i live in australia and we have a mixture of public and private system and our public systemi usually works well if you are acutely ill or have an accident- the problems come in if you have chronic health problems. GP's are basically private practice but they will usualy charge less for pensioners(they will bill the medicare system directly) but they will charge others sllightly more and then it gets claimed back from medicare by the patient (with a small out of pocket expensee
the hospitals are where it changes. if you are acutely ill or have an accident you will get seen to immediately if needed but if you go punlic you cannot pick your own surgeon or doctor it is the person on call and may even change throughout one hospital stay.
if you are privately insured you go to a private hospital and see the doctor you chose. insurance used to cover almost all if not all the cost but that is changing. i have top cover it costs me about $80 per fortnit(including 30 gov rebate) and i had to find $1500 for the surgeon upfront and $500 for the Anaesthetist- thisw as the out of pocket part and it was emergency surery- if i did not have it i would have been sent to the public hospital- that would not have happended a few yrs ago partof this is that doctors fees are going up but what medicare pays is not rising- the AMA argues the government is trying to hold doctors fees and charges dwn by not increasein medicare benefits 9IF The suregons and specialist raise fees and medicare does not it makse the doctors look bad"
the public system has never been as good when it comes to covering long term chronic health problems- just as one example pain unit waiting leists are usually in excess of 12 months, hip and knee replacemetns have long waiting lists too, they will also usually restrict who they put on the list to those over 60 whereas i wa in my thirties when i needed a knee replacemetn (fer damage from an accident- i went through the private system and got it done by the surgeon of my chose and i could plan the surgery for when it wa convenienet- not an option in public system
paramedical stuff is also not wel covered in privateunless you pay substantial out of pocket expenses- which is ok if you are working, you could then aso claim the out of pocket stuff on tax but if you are on a pension or benefit you cannot claim it on tax as you will not have paid enough tax to make it work place you can't claim thr first $1500 for a single
but what i thin is worse( and i thin you guys have the same issues) our public systems are far less effcient than they used to be and abig part of this is that htey used to have a nursing admin a medical director, a department head for outpatient servuces and then there was general adminsinstration and at deparemt or ward level the charge nurse or cnc would be the over all heead even over stores aneec- if there wer issus with cleaning or orderlies the CNC could liase with general admin- but now every service has been out sourced, usually to toally differen companie - so or instance the CNC has to go up through nursing admin, who then will contact general admin who will then contact say cleaners or security. I would have thought at very least they should have kept similar servces as part of the same contract say housekeeping etc. that could have cleaner, orderlies, kitchen and that would have made sense bu instead each of those would be seperate contracts- Also the contracts are sent not to the best company but to the cheapest tender so there is little mat on the bone and when they can' be sure they will doing the job in say 5 yrs, they have no loyallty, no long term vision or goal i because purely about maximiseing the profit by doing the least thy can under that contract.
sonds cynical doesn't it but my background is nursing and i have worked in the public secor for most of my adult life. my las job was in the state health system, it was a role that had already gone through 2 out sourced contracts- i got a 3 yrs contract and e and my collegues found were given 2 weeks notic of being ou of work because the contract had been outsourced to a company interstate (3000km away) who would employee new staff
its not good for those working in it and that is reflected in how they do the work, also here is not much meat on the bone anyway on those tenders, and then finally here is no co ordination in the hospital usuall or not in the way you would expect a private comapany to work at beast it is a whole gaggle of small companies but they all have heir own vested inersts and that goes up over the needs of the organisation of the patints
i don't know if that makses sense
they did not need to privatize, they could have remained a government entity but run the thing as if it were a private company- so budget and efficacious is important and jobs are not safe unless you do them well and the best person gets a job and gets demoted if they do not do well- al those things.
instead you have the peopl at the coasl face struggling to working in a fragmened mis matched group of small companies where lines of communication are really screwed up
until they sort that mess out nothing else will matter
I had to go private because where I lived in England there was no NHS service availability. So that's 10k for rehab. more for injections and follow up. Also Social Services lied on my care report so I had to find £60k pa for care. What happens with privatisation, as in the USA is all the companies charge what they can get away with. A simple antibiotic costs twice what it does here for example.
when you feel nobody is listening
Tramadol withdrawal
Age allowed to post on here?
Home grown pain relief.
Is there a linked site here to offer advice on benefits?
