UK people - private health insurance?

I was just looking at a London-based company web site. One of the benefits they offer employees is private healthcare.

“The company operates a Private Healthcare Scheme. Everyone is entitled to join the scheme once they have attained six months service with the company, subject to a nominal contribution to the cost of the benefit. The Health Care Scheme is currently provided by Western Providence Association (WPA).”

What does this get you that national healthcare does not? Is this a common employee benefit?

Private beats the shit out of the NHS.

When I was employed by Royal Mail I joined a private health scheme at very reasonable cost, a couple of years later I needed a double hernia operation., this was back in 1994.

If I had had to wait for the NHS I’d still be waiting, as it was it was just 2 days before I was seen and operated on.

Private room,excellent food and all I had to pay extra was for phone calls, even my newspapers were free.

FWIW I maintained my membership after leaving Royal Mail and altho’ it’s slightly more costly I know that should any emergency arise I’d be seen waaaaaaay before the NHS got around to me.

Another benefit of the scheme was that I was permitted to add my son and his wife to the scheme at minimal cost.

And yes, many companies offer private these days.

It gets you speed in non-emergency situations and a higher level of care. The U.K. private healthcare system operates alongside the state one. The latter has massive delays but really wins when there’s an emergency. But if you need something done that isn’t immediately life-threatening, there are huge waiting lists. Having private health insurance - or being willing to pay cash - means that you don’t wait. Some health schemes only kick in if the NHS can’t treat you within a certain time (e.g. 6 weeks), others, like WPA, fully replace the NHS for hospital care - you still go to the local doctor first and for prescriptions.

I happen to be with WPA and it costs me £750 (US$1500) a year.

It does NOT get you a “higher level of care”.
Yes, you’ll skip the waiting list and you get to see the consultant of your choice in person. A true medical emergency will get you seen and treated in the NHS on the same day, we’re actually pretty good that way.

If you have private health insurance you will either be treated in a private hospital which are often woefully understaffed from a medical perspective as there are usually no full time junior medical staff (as you cannot get accredited for training purposes if you work in the private sector) and the consultants (i.e. the only doctors on the premises) may only spend one afternoon there a week each. There is often only a doctor there 9-5 Mon-Fri.

Private hospitals in the UK are also inadequate to handle a major complication or emergency as there is often no spare operating theatre, no spare medical staff, no on-site blood bank and no ICU. If something bad happens to you, all you can hope is that you get transferred to the nearest big NHS hospital ASAP.

You may of course be treated in an NHS hospital, in which case, the junior doctors will still clerk you in, prescribe your meds and deal with you on a day-to-day basis. You may get a side room, if space is tight and someone else needs it for medical reasons, you’ll end up in a 6 bedded bay like anyone else. The consultant will probably pop round twice a day, and they will do any surgery themselves, but that’s about it.

deleted. point made better above.

Sorry, but in my experience it definitely does.

As I noted, the NHS is very good with emergencies.

In general, I do agree with you. There are exceptions, however, such as psychiatric provision, where the NHS is often woefully inadequate.

Absolutely, and in these situations the private sector is being subsidised by the NHS.

My secretary left to join a private hospital. She was back within a month because she was routinely the only member of staff in the building in an evening. No doctors, no nurses - just her to respond to medical emergencies.

I’ve always meant to look into this. Most people at work who’ve mentioned private care have talked about seeing a consultant to find out what’s wrong with them quickly but not about what happens afterwards.

If I have PI and saw a consultant about a lump/rash whatever, would I then go back onto the NHS with a long wait or would seeing the consultant cut half the wait?

the whole private/NHS thing is a real minefield in the UK. i’m a right wing kind of guy who was generally anti NHS - but…

I had a series of heart tests on both the NHS & thru medical insurance. Private diagnostics were years ahead of the NHS - they picked up things good & bad that the NHS simply missed. The NHS actually mis-counted the number of heart valves :smack:

So in terms of getting quick treatment and figuring out what is wrong with you - private is best.

The snag comes when you actually need an operation. As one of the previous posters said, private hospitals are grossly understaffed and basically if something goes wrong, especially out of hours you’d better get back to a large NHS hospital.

NHS teaching hospitals seem to offer very high levels of healthcare. IMO what a lot of us Brits would like is NHS care but with the option of selectively paying for speed of care. Go to a private apointment and you are seen instantly - go to an NHS appointment and you have to take enought reading material for the whole morning.

Which ofcourse goes against the founding principles of the NHS.

A politician meddles with the NHS at his peril.

But then, I am of the opinion that the publication of the Beveridge Report and the granting of a Royal Charter to the BBC are the two greatest events in the social history of the UK.

If asked that question as a simple yes/no, then sure, a lot of people probably would agree. If talked through the implications this would have for the NHS and also for those who cannot easily afford ‘speed of care’ in more detail, many people would change their minds. (Essentially what you describe could be paralleled to the current situation with dental treatment?)

Private health care is not always but very often a perk of of manager grade in companies. Sometimes a company will subsidise an employee too so that it makes it affordable for those on lower pay.

I don’t think anyone will argue that you get treated quicker if you’re in a private scheme (unless it’s an emergency) but I would like to mention that in many cases the same doctors and consultants work in both private and the NHS.

For example my wife had cataracts removed by a consultant under the NHS who also worked privately and was considered to be a leading exponent in eye surgery.

As far as waiting time goes for treatment under the NHS I was diagnosed with a tumour and was operated on within the week to remove it. It might have been a bit quicker if I had private health insurance but I was happy with my operation and aftercare.

I doubt it would have been quicker privately. 99.6% of people diagnosed with cancer (total cancer diagnoses Q1 2007, ~55,000) recieve treatment on the NHS within one month. And if you take into consideration that some treatments like radiotherapy involve complex planning that takes a lot of time before treatment can begin, even if you go privately there will be a delay.

That should be 51,000 not 55,000.

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.

  1. I know many doctors, and it would be difficult to have any confidentiality in the NHS.

  2. There are issues with your employer also providing you health care

  3. I know many doctors by reputation, so I’d like to be able to choose who I go to!

  4. 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.