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I have something wrong with my ears, and a referral to the ENT clinic from GP, but the soonest appointment through the NHS is in two months' time.
Given an apparently escalating problem, and the fact I have only the one pair, that wait bothers me, so I'm thinking of investigating going private.
I've never done that before - how is it done?
I've googled but just seem to get adverts for hearing aid centres.
Find a local private clinic with a specialist.
Talk to specialists secretary.
Visit your GP for a referral
Visit specialist.
Chances are it'll be the same person you'd see on the NHS. You used to be able to be referred back into the NHS for treatment (so essentially you pay to queue jump the initial consultation wait) but that may not be the case or, ethically somethign you feel comfortable with.
Go to your GP. Ask for a private referral.
Be amazed how quickly the consultant whose NHS waiting list you are on gets back to you and sees you when you are paying for the privilege.
Yes if you pay you can choose who you want to see, thats the system. Money talks in healthcare.
… so first point of contact is actually my GP?
I've already had a referral from her for the NHS appointment, do I need another one?
Yes. Tell her you want to pay. Ask her who she thinks is the best local ear specialist.
Mum had a cancer scare a few years ago.
We jumped the queue (is what it is) to see the same guy we would have been waiting for. A minor procedure was need but at that point we knew it wasn't time critical and frankly couldn't afford a private operation.
The person,via the NHS was the same guy we saw privately.
I'm honestly scared that in the near future you'll only get decent care if you can afford to go private and we won't be able to in the future.
It was an odd experience paying a few hundred with a card to a receptionist in a hospital I can tell you... Very "American".
"You used to be able to be referred back into the NHS for treatment (so essentially you pay to queue jump the initial consultation wait) but that may not be the case or, ethically somethign you feel comfortable with.
This has never been allowed and is abuse of the system. Once you strt a course of private treatment you cannot go back into the NHS without going to the back of the queue and starting again.
Isn’t there a difference between private consultation/diagnosis and “beginning a course of tretment” TJ?
Chances are it’ll be the same person you’d see on the NHS
I have private healthcare and any time I've had a consultation it's been at a private hospital. Also had knee surgery which again didn't involve any visits to nhs hospitals.
But as above your gp refers you.
I can see how the queue jumping causes issues, but if all the money that gets paid into private health had to be found by the NHS we’d be in the dwang. Same with education. We can’t educatt all the private kids in the state system, let alone pay for it.
Isn’t there a difference between private consultation/diagnosis and “beginning a course of tretment” TJ?
Yep I think that's how they 'work' around that specific abuse of the system. See consultant privately, get diagnosed. At that point the patient may opt to pay and be treated privately or be moved to the NHS treatment waiting list.
Phone up your local Bupa/Spire hospital that does ears/lugs to get the details they need for a referral. They'll be used to such questions and will guide you through.
Then on to your GP for a referral.
Book a private appointment and pays yours monies when you get there.
Highly recommended. The referral thing is a bit annoying, but almost certainly worth it for jumping the queue if there's a big wait for a first appointment.
A relative has done similar for scans and stuff. They have cancer, it's supposed to be an NHS priority but there still seems to be a succession of lengthy queues and waits which has surely worsened their prognosis. So I think just a handful of times they paid to get it done quicker. (Not the actual treatment though which seems prompt enough once diagnosed and planned).
It was an odd experience paying a few hundred with a card to a receptionist in a hospital I can tell you… Very “American”.
We had this when going through IVF a few years ago - went to Leeds General Hospital for treatment but as we live in North Yorkshire there was no help from the NHS. Went to the clinic along with a few other couples, got our prescription for the ovulation drugs and handed over just shy of £1,000 (for the drugs alone - the procedures were on top). The person in front of us in the queue was from West Yorkshire so just paid the standard prescription fee for the same drugs (then go the procedure for free on the NHS).
A private consultation should not be able to refer you straight to surgery waiting list in the NHS. You should be in the usual queue. anything else is wrong and against regs
There are a whole load of consultants gaming the system tho in order to bump up their private work.
‘>A private consultation should not be able to refer you straight to surgery waiting list in the NHS. You should be in the usual queue. anything else is wrong and against regs’
But the consultant couldn’t put you to the back of the ‘waiting to see a consultant’ queue Shirley? As you’ve seen a consultant. The ‘queue jump’ bit is not having to wait to see a consultant, who puts you to the back of the ‘waiting to be operated on’ queue. If you want to jump that queue, you pay the big bucks for the private op.
It’s not ‘I’ve seen a private consultant, so I jump ALL the queues’ as I understand it?
"But the consultant couldn’t put you to the back of the ‘waiting to see a consultant’ queue Shirley?"
Yes he should. There should be no way that you canhave a private consultation then be refered stright onto the NHS waiting list as if you saw and NHS consultant. Two things will be happening either the consultant is overstating the waiting list to get the private consultation fees or he is putting you thru as an NHS patient. You cannot mix and match private and NHS treatment
Referral clock time is 18 weeks
you go to your GP, for something, and he can't treat you. so he/she refers you to intermediate or secondary care, you should be seen within 18 weeks. Lots of intermediate care has RTT times that are much shorter than 2ndry care as part of their contracts, and that's normally 2-4 weeks depending on the speciality. If it's a cancer suspect (anything) then most CCG/Trusts have a fast track system that will have you sat in front of a consultant within 2 weeks.
What you get up to within that 18 week wait is none of the NHS' business. The clock stops only if you're given an appointment, or a course of treatment.
You don't actually need to see a GP for a private referral if you are paying yourself (£200 for a private consultation). Health insurance companies use GPs a s gatekeepers for their systems of payment. If you are paying yourself, then you can go on any recommendation.
And if it is pre-existing, you can't be treated on a new policy anyway, so if you do not have private insurance now, and want it, this ailment will not be covered.
I had surgery for a plate in my wrist the next day after a private consultation, after my visit to the NHS fracture clinic, who basically said, we'll wait at least three months and break your wrist again because it will never heal properly.
Long post, apologies.
As others have said, speak to your GP.
Your GP already knows your case and that you need to see a specialist. Just make it a phone call, no need to waste a GP appointment. Your GP will know who is good/bad/indifferent at sorting your particular problem locally. If it's an ENT chap you need then chances are he does private work anyway.
And TJ is mostly but not entirely correct. If you see a specialist privately then all investigations and treatment that result from that referral must occur on the private side of the fence. Without insurance it will be very expensive. If your specialist moves you directly from private consultation to NHS waiting list then he should be hauled up.
However if you do not wish to pursue private healthcare beyond the "diagnosis and recommendations for treatment" stage then that is your choice. The specialist can ask your GP to refer you on the NHS. You might get sent to another hospital entirely but GPs are not daft, they will most likely refer you to the same guy who saw you privately because he already knows you and remember, your GP thought he was the best chap in the first place.
You will then wait with everyone else to get seen by the same specialist or one of his wider team. They *could* make you have a "new patient" appointment but that would be unproductive to the point of being vindictive: it's not the job of the NHS to punish patients for having seen someone privately. And that's before we consider that the new patient slot you have been made to use unnecessarily would have been wasted and could have been used by another patient instead.
And since the "diagnosis and recommendation for treatment" has already been made by a trusted colleague then skipping straight to treatment at that point is the most logical and indeed fairest way to proceede.
If I was faced with having to wait or pay I would go to Europe and pay them not some leach filling their boots off the back of the NHS.
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