What is the processto see a GP privately?

I called a local private hospital who told me I needed to be referred by a GP which causes me issues as I while am still registered with one I am not resident.

I’m used to just walking into a private hospital and seeing a doctor.

Go and see a non private GP as an out of area patient

Ask for referral to private if you insist on this

If you see a private GP be prepared for a surprisingly large bill. Best to re-register at new residence imo

Insurance covers it, just a bit baffled by the need to be referred from a normal gp

http://www.bupa.co.uk/health/self-pay-treatments/gp-services sounds like you book up and go the next day

Quirrell that has always been my experience with Private Health care, you have to be referred by a GP. Yes I have found it annoying, eg I know I have (for example) a buggered knee, I don’t need a GP to diagnose that or refer me to a specialist

Quirrel. In the uk GP’s are gatekeepers to secondary care specialists so few specialists are used to seeing patients with undifferentiated problems, without a referral letter containing past medical history etc.
We have a more advanced primary care system that deals with much of what might be dealt with by a specialist elsewhere in the world. So specialists here might not think it their role to deal with some less serious/specialised problems, and might expect the GP to deal with it. Obviously if you are not a uk resident and not entitled to NHS services this makes it harder for you to negotiate the system. Id suggest a private GP as first port of call if you really can’t see a specialist without referral. Is it possible that you don’t need to see the specialist at all?

Only want someone to give me a prescription for some antibiotics to clear up my manky throat and give it a swab to find out why it keeps going manky.

Found Newcastle Premier Health will give them a call tomorrow.

Only want someone to give me a prescription for some antibiotics to clear up my manky throat and give it a swab to find out why it keeps going manky

That’s what gp’s do. No need to visit a hospital, other option is an out of hours walk in unit. Most places have them

Sore throat specialist in the uk is a GP. Not a “specialist” as they never see people with sore throats.
Loads of online services to get inappropriate antibiotics it seems
It’s probably viral anyway and you’ll get better without antibiotics
That will be £69 please.
Next

while am still registered with one I am not resident. [/Quote]
I’m confused. If you mean you’ve moved house them just register to a new local practice. If there is some urgency to seeing a Dr it can be done before/during the registration process, in any case even with “headline grabbing appalling waiting times” you’ll still see you new GP quicker than you’d get a private hospital referral for a sore throat.

If you mean you aren’t staying in the uk for more than a few months most GPs have arrangements for treating temporary visitors (probably foc, as it’s easiest) often easier if a registered patient makes the call, “mr quirrel is staying with us for a few weeks and is unwell” otherwise the receptionist thinks you are trying to avoid registering.

It’s probably viral anyway

Tell that to the white pustuals, green shit dripping over it and manky lumps all over it.

At 69 quid that is cheap – do you do house calls.

I went to a walk in the other day and they had a box to tick if I wasn’t resident in the UK for the last 12 months, I asked what the process was if I wasn’t and they looked blankly at me, I left.

I went to a walk in the other day and they had a box to tick if I wasn’t resident in the UK for the last 12 months, I asked what the process was if I wasn’t and they looked blankly at me, I left.

Right, but they didn’t refuse treatment or suggest it was a problem did they? You are over thinking this. The NHS isn’t set up to deal with getting your credit card details before treatment, they might ask you for some extra information after they treat you, or in an an extreme give you a bill to forward to an insurer; but IF YOU ARE GENUINELY SICK AND IN NEED OF ANTIBIOTICS no doctor in the UK is going to refuse to see you for admin reasons. You are making this more complicated than it is. Go to doctor. Answer any questions they ask. Fill in any details you have on forms they give you. If needed take prescription to pharmacy. You may have to pay for the prescription (or if you are in some parts of the UK and the Dr and Pharmacist are going with path of least resistance it will be FOC).

The NHS for all it’s good points is so woefully inefficient, it’s no surprise that it is cash strapped. Why have one appointment, when you can have three to reach the obvious conclusion?

I received three letters the other week for the same appointment and one was addressed to the parent/guardian of me – I’m 44

We all have a medical/NHS number and we all have our info stored in a database. Why then do you get asked the same questions 15 times during a 24hr stay in hospital? My mother has a terminal brain tumour and whilst looking at his computer screen, her specialist was asking me when her radiotherapy finished.

If I ran my business as badly, I’d go bust

The same questions get asked to check there is no mistakes, sometimes what appears to be silly question is asked for a good reason. Checking the patent knows when they medication or treatment stopped shows their understanding of it. Just reading a screen isn’t good practice, dates need to be confirmed.

Why have one appointment, when you can have three to reach the obvious conclusion?

This is literally all they teach you in medical school.

Plus ,if the conclusion isn’t obvious in the first consult, you’re probably malingerer… 🙄

If I ran my business as badly, I’d go bust

Which, I suppose, says something about the NHS doing something OK…

DrP

I wonder what buissiness it is that you have that’s never made mistake and has a million customers every 36 hours?

1. The NHS isn’t a business, thankfully.

2. I quite like that each new health care professional (on the very rare visits) I see them asks me the same questions. That’s not inefficient, it is thorough and aka risk management. I don’t really want them getting me mixed up with patient 97 when I am patient 98 that day.

Or we could all just get tattoos of bar codes perhaps ?

My wife is going through the early menopause – it took around 2 years for whichever GP/specialist she saw to acknowledge this and even then they were reluctant to give her HRT. All the time she was pretty certain that she was having an early menopause.

Had she been given HRT when it was required, it may have helped delay/prevent the onset of Osteoarthritis.

3 years ago she had an X-ray on a dodgy hip and on numerous occassions was told that she was too young/didn’t need a hip replacement. 2 months ago she finally got to see a specialist that rushed her through as her 3 year old x-ray showed that she was ready for a new hip 3 years ago. When this one is healed, she’ll be ready for the other one.

But yeah, she’s a malingerer

OK, maybe repeated questioning is justified in a single stay in hospital, but my mothers specialist had no record of her admission to A&E the previous week. Why is this sort of stuff not automatically entered on to a patients medical records?

OK, maybe repeated questioning is justified in a single stay in hospital, but my mothers specialist had no record of her admission to A&E the previous week. Why is this sort of stuff not automatically entered on to a patients medical records?

It is but due the crap system currently in place by some trusts it can take more than a week to be entered on GP records.

I asked what the process was if I wasn’t and they looked blankly at me, I left.

The process is
1)to look at you blankly when you suggest that not being resident should effect things.
2)treat you like any other human being, because you are.
3)to respond to an FOI request by some right wing hate mongering organisation /newspaper and tell them how many foreign people dared to be ill/need medical treatment whilst in the UK.

I remember seeing a foreign visitor as a private patient when I was a GP trainee about 20 years ago. It was a very rare occurrence in a small market town. I think he was charged about £35. There is nothing really stopping any GP doing that now. Unfortunately though most practices are too busy fulfilling their NHS contractual obligations so would not have capacity to take on another urgent extra so would perhaps not be interested. Patients might rightly complain about waiting x weeks for an appointment in the NHS while the GP does private work. I note that dentists manage both though. NHS patients can’t get out of school/work time appointments though.
However all the newfangled systems like walk in centres etc are simply not set up (possibly not allowed) to see patients privately and charge for services. Like it or not the op isn’t entitled to use the NHS so he has done the right thing in seeking private sector treatment. As he has discovered there are services out there in most urban centres just not widely used for primary care, as there is usually so little need. This may well change in the future of course if jezza gets his way. Certainly when I saw my foreign holiday maker all those years ago there were not private GP services advertised in the local paper on a weekly basis as there are now.

£75 for walk in, I think that was quite reasonable. Insurance covers it.

It was easier as I could tell them my GP surgery, which helped, for some reason and I saw a nurse practitioner or something like that, penicillin issued and told to reregister if we move back.

Did make me think about what Bruce it buddy from America or Australia does when they come here and fall ill.

My health insurance company were pretty on the ball wanting to pay and arrange appointments in this instance it was easier for me to pay and claim back.

However what happens to one of those overseas tourists who falls in the lakes miles from any private hospitals. How does the hospital bill them or for they direct bill insurance?

Sun this week was about yet another tourist in Thailand running up a bill, dying and parents family begging for money to release the body.

Health care certainly isn’t cheap, one of my colleagues needed emergency heart surgery it came to 27000usd over 4 days plus follow up out patients

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – my comment “Plus ,if the conclusion isn’t obvious in the first consult, you’re probably [a] malingerer…” was actually tongue in cheek, and I think taken wrongly by you (though I can see why – it actually doesn’t make much sense!).
It was basically highlighting that the vast majority of conclusions AREN’T obvious in the first consult – there are many factors that take time (running tests, observing over a time period).
Basically, unless it’s something simple, a doctor is unlikely to make a clear and concise diagnosis from first contact..

Though it’s not good to get into individual medical cases, HRT has been a ‘yoyo’ medicine for some time…at first it was great, then it was terrible, then it’s been shown to be of benefit again.
It depends on what ‘phase of the cycle’ you see someone about it as to the current recommendation. Not great, but that’s science..

DrP

However, to answer the OPs point…
you don’t actually need a referral from a GP to seek private healthcare..
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/892.aspx?CategoryID=68&SubCategoryID=158

However, as I find locally with most (actually, thinking about it, ALL) private hospitals nearby, they do ask for one.

Kind of makes sense, though you could insist on NOT having one.

DrP

Did make me think about what Bruce it buddy from America or Australia does when they come here and fall ill.

They phone their insurance helpline, who will suggest one of these types of thing:

Home

http://www.londondoctorsclinic.co.uk/

http://www.bupa.co.uk/health/self-pay-treatments/gp-services

Glad you got sorted OP

Using acute services for life threatening stuff is a bit different. It’s a case of treat the patient first recover the costs later.
Long winded document telling trusts how to go about recovering costs