Switching from the NHS to private healthcare

Worth doing? I’d be registered as a private individual.
Interested in hearing of any good or bad experiences!

I’ve nothing against the old NHS it just seems to be creaking at the seams and I’d like a less stressful experience in terms of booking appointments and long waiting times, especially when getting treated for stress!

Don’t know why you think booking an NHS appointment would be a streeful experience. Waiting times are the shortest they have ever been.

if you have the cash.. go ahead. great fort everyday visits at your convienance etc.
however come the big stuff you ll find yourself better off in the nhs. my room mate when i had my heart op was a paying guest, he d chosen to have his op in the nhs hospital as the emergency facilities were better..

Private health care normally just enhances the NHS offering anyway. You get to see consultants more quickly, in their ‘off-hours’. Consultants will use NHS or ‘Private’ facilities for ops & procedures, depending on availability and price.

I am fortunate to be insured through work. I’ve used it for loads of physio visits (injuries) over the years, and a few minor ops.

For me, the two seem to work hand in hand. BUPA through work by the way.

Knee problem, see GP, ask for private referral to local BUPA hospital, get approval from BUPA (two consultant visits plus MRI approved straight away), appointment for < 1 week later, MRI next day.

There is an excess to pay, which in our case is 200 pounds.

EDIT: Had my other knee serviced 10 years ago. The overall bill was about 8000 pounds, of which I paid 100 pounds as the excess at the time.

+1 if you can afford it use it. I’ve had a few things sorted out going private (through work) including an ACL reconstruction. From first consultation to final op was something like 10 weeks (had to wait 6-8 weeks between ops IIRC). My neighbour had the same injury soon after me and it took him just short of two years to get sorted out (by the same consultant!).

Had it in the past for a Hernia Op from seeing the GP to being on the operating table took four weeks, would of been sooner but I had give work notice of two weeks as I was using Annual leave for recovery.

Similar operation by the NHS they cocked up, took 4 months for the op and after the op it split open inside and had to be redone.

Excellent if you can afford it.

So does anyone on here know what sort of cost you’d be looking at? I guess its variable to some degree on age, health etc, but what sort of ball park figure?

Mine (benefit from work) is added and removed from salary at around £65 a month. 42 and obviously elite athlete, being on here 🙂

Interesting. Way cheaper than I imagined. That’s in affordable territory.

Are you talking about self-pay or insurance? e.g. Bupa
Self-pay can get very expensive – and you can’t necessarily just drop out and go NHS half-way if you run out of ££
Bupa have been in financial difficulty for some time now – costs are going up and up but customers don’t want to spend the premiums required to keep up with these costs – the ageing population is a big pressure here. One way to deal with this is to pay out less in claims… so you have to be very careful with the small print, or it could cost you a lot more than you think
As mentioned above – private A&E is very limited in the UK so if you’re in for an op and something goes wrong, being taken down the corridor to ITU is a better place to be than in the wrong building!

Its £1400 per year for me (48) + family. 5 skulls in total. Bupa.

You are not really switching – you are paying for insurance to pay for the option of being treated privately where that option exists.
Generally speeds up process as per above posts – be very careful about pre-existing conditions – employers who offer this benefit usually negotiate to have them covered by new joiners – outside an employment related scheme the cover may exclude them.

My company private healthcare incurs a benefit in kind deduction of £650 from my personal allowance so it costs me approx £130 /yr net.

Thanks all, I’m self employed and the figures I’ve had quoted come in at about £400 a year, for the record. I’m in my 30s and have no previous other than a knee issue which doesn’t require surgery. But I will ensure I check the small print as I’m always weary talking to insurance people.

Bupa for me was £70 a month and that was with Pre Existing Hypertension. I got it mainly so I could get my hernia sorted quickly.

It’s not really switching as you’re not opting out of the NHS nor not paying for it, you’re just going private with the NHS as a backup, as that’s where you’ll end up if anything goes wrong.

I am also interested to learn more about all of this.

The prices and cover described above sound very attractive. I don’t fancy going through the 1 year wait for an MRI/ convincing someone to care again if I can help it.

I will be self employed soon and had been recommended by friends to look at Health Insurance. Although it shouldn’t make any difference I am conscious to minimise time away from work should something happen (MTB can be a little unpredictable after all).

Do the BUPA style health insurance offer any possibility to cover lost earnings from time away from work (some form of sick pay I guess) or is that something different all together?

If it could all be combined with some form of regular travel insurance that is even more attractive…

I have cover for liability for the various things affecting others but am responsible for my own personal insurance… seems like a minefield but I’m sure it is ok when you get in to it 😕

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Do the BUPA style health insurance offer any possibility to cover lost earnings from time away from work (some form of sick pay I guess) or is that something different all together?

I think that is different (although I’m not expert so stand to be corrected).

I thought so but haven’t got my head around where insurance for sick pay for self employed comes in. It seems to fall under “self employed income protection” although I’m not sure if the health insurance providers can include this too 😕

It would be nice to cover health and the usual self employed stuff together if possible? Has anyone done this/ would you recommend it?