Oh don’t get me wrong I agree with private health care if you can afford it- my husband has BUPA cover for both of us through his work and I’m glad of it, and most doctors who work in the NHS go privately themselves.
The reasons I (and most other doctors) would go privately myself are possibly different to the reasons Joe Public would go privately.
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I know many doctors, and it would be difficult to have any confidentiality in the NHS.
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There are issues with your employer also providing you health care
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I know many doctors by reputation, so I’d like to be able to choose who I go to!
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As a doctor, I’m seeking an expert opinion, therefore I want to be seen by the Consultant. As a rule of thumb, you don’t want the person treating you to know less than you about your condition!
Given all that, I still wouldn’t have any surgery in a hospital without an ICU, blood bank and 24hour medical staffing, because I know the risks.
I’ve spoken to nursing staff who worked agency shifts at a local private hospital- they say that as the sole purpose of the place is to make money some surprising corners are cut. Yes, the place is painted and re-decorated annually, and the catering and cleaning are incredible, but the actual operating equipment is out of date, the computer system is obsolete and nurses have to do the clerical work because they don’t employ enough clerical staff. oh yes, and as the hospital isdesigned to cater for day cases, if someone is too ill to go home at 7pm and has to stay overnight, there is often only one nurse on-site, plus the security staff.
I am aware of a surgeon who has retired from NHS work because he was felt to be getting to old and set in his ways, and some of his techniques were felt to be outdated and unsafe. He now operates with impunity privately, trading on his reputation which was valid perhaps 20 years ago.
Private surgeons also rarely deal with the aftermath of their surgeries if there are complications. Often the NHS picks up the pieces via the local A&E department.
In the past 18 months I have seen the following patients in NHS hospitals, all had their surgeries in private facilities :
An infected and necrotic wound from a tummy tuck, the patient was left badly scarred.
A woman whose badly placed gastric band eroded through her stomach and who ended up having a total gastrectomy because of the necrosis and tissue damage, she then developed sepsis from the original wound site and almost died.
A woman who had a TVT (tension free vaginal tape) placed for incontinence and presented to A&E 3 weeks later with torrential bleeding caused by the tissue around the tape becoming so infected that the tape eroded through both the bladder and vaginal walls. She required major surgery to repair the defect.