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the private sector does not train staff. You claimed they did.
they almost certainly DO train staff (the CQC would shut them down if they didn't). I presume you mean they don't provide initial professional training like a teaching hospital do? How did training work before the NHS? its clearly not that private facilities can't train staff - it may be its not financially viable, or it maybe an NHS monopoly (no bad thing) makes it impenetrable.
However TJ - the reason people are arguing vehemently with you is not that most people here think the NHS is crap, or we should restructure it to replace with private or even that its a good thing that people can pay to queue jump - but rather that your first post was totally black and white. "Nope and I never will". Then it transpires you have encouraged loved ones to use private services for exactly the sort of things other people use private services for. The OP wasn't wondering if anyone had totally privatised their own healthcare - they were wondering if anyone had taken out insurance for exactly the sort of services your family has used it for! People who do that aren't necessarily ideological - they are pragmatic.
So at the risk of bringing it back on-topic for the OP:
Has anyone in the UK bought private healthcare, other than through their employer?
I need to answer that
My answer was that I would not pay insurance but would use private medicine in particular circumstances.
I do apologise if I came over angry or too dogmatic. Not my intention. I do get very frustrated with people with hard right ideologies that make false statements about healthcare but can now see I have displayed the same behavior in the opposite direction so again - I apologise for that. But I have not made false statements.
*sigh* Well, I tried.
sorry IHN
*tugs forelock and shuffles off chastised*
Has anyone in the UK bought private healthcare, other than through their employer?
That’s the good question. Personally I think the premium’s are too high to afford, you are looking way in excess of £100 per month for decent private health insurance.
Private health insurance doesn’t cover you in the uk if you are acutely unwell (that would make it 2 tier like the states). Also as you get older and therefore more sick the prices start to rocket in to the £100’s per month
My personal thought is, pay for the private referral, find out what’s wrong and then go back in to the NHS system
The other problem with healthcare is that outcomes are so specific to the person so it’s difficult to say one route will give a better outcome to another route.
Example: friend of mines Dad was diagnosed with cancer about 5yrs ago. Straight away he went private. Mrs FD wasn’t convinced that was a good idea. However he is still here and under gone more chemo cycles than he would have been given on the NHS (retired man with company private health insurance)
My answer was that I would not pay insurance but would use private medicine in particular circumstances.
+1
My current employer is the first to not offer cover as part of the package, so first time I've not had health cover in 30+ years. If I needed something I'd probably just cough up and pay Bupa etc for it as a one off cost. In fact I already sort of do that with see a private physio for any sports injuries - never bother the GP as the wait would be months whereas I can see someone tomorrow if I pull a muscle and have £60 to spare...
I see an argument has erupted, but I fancy joining in anyway.
I can see the advantage, but I admit not know much about it really.
I've used Spire and Bupa in the past for 2nd opinions, they were just that 2nd opinions, they couldn't really offer me anything the NHS couldn't, in fact there's nothing *really* about it, my Surgeon was an NHS Surgeon who offers private consultancy via Spire, but it allow me to speak to a surgeon who was a good communicator in an unrushed way, and not a poor communicator who was trying to see dozens of other patients in a conveyor belt like surgery in an NHS Hospital, it cost £100 for 45 mins and worth every penny.
Fast forward 8 years and I needed more surgery, my NHS Surgeon is a fantastic communicator, who works from a far better NHS hospital than the last lot, she listened and didn't just talk and told me the 'facts of life' when they needed to be said. She was better then the chap I saw in Spire, luck of the draw I guess.
Another bit of 'luck' was that because they were busy with Covid, the NHS bumped my Surgery to Spire, so I got to experience what "going private" was like for the 'hands on' part. Well I got my own room, decorated in the early 90s at a guess, large, cold, en suite with a telly on the wall. I'd have preferred a bit of company to help with nerves, but that's just me. I was made aware of the additional risks of private surgery, the increase risk of infection and of course the fact if something really serious happened to me 'on the table' I might have to be slid into the back of an Ambo and to a NHS Hospital because they have more resources to hand etc.
I've just asked for a quote for Health Insurance for Me and my family, £120 a month, not a fortune, but not inconsequential either, I've got a basic understanding of what it costs... I don't personally see the value to us.