Post by Carl LaFong on Apr 28, 2024 23:36:00 GMT
Long waiting lists are creating a boom in the medical insurance market, leading to fears of a long-term change in attitudes to the health service
www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/28/no-ones-being-honest-about-it-how-nhs-crisis-forces-patients-to-go-private
When Rosemary Duff heard how long she would have to wait for a hip replacement operation on the NHS, she felt she had no choice but to dip into her savings.
“I waited a month to see my GP, then another four months to see a consultant. His opening words were ‘unless you go private, there’s an 18-month waiting list’, which was a bit of a shock,” said Duff, 71, from Norwich. “Much against my principles, I agreed to go private.”
Duff said her hips had started to play up after the first Covid lockdown, and she had physio through the NHS that had slowed down the deterioration. But a year ago she began experiencing increased pain, was not able to walk very far and struggled to get up the stairs.
Duff, who worked in market research before retiring, spent almost £28,000 having both hips replaced last year at a private hospital run by Circle Health Group. “A lot of money out of my savings, but my children said I should go ahead and do it!” she said.
The same consultant surgeon who advised her to go private then performed the surgery at the Clementine Churchill hospital in Harrow.
Many consultants split their time between working for the NHS and the private sector, with rules in place aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest.
Lengthening NHS waiting lists, which hit a peak of nearly 7.8 million in England in September, have prompted more people to take out private medical insurance in recent years, despite its rising cost. Others are dipping into savings or taking out loans to pay for routine operations, often spending thousands of pounds.
The waiting list was still 7.5 million in February, compared with 4.6 million before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the British Medical Association, and close to half of the patients had been waiting for 18 weeks or longer. The waiting list is expected to “start to fall consistently but slowly from the middle of 2024”, the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts – though it is likely to exceed pre-pandemic levels until 2030.
www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/28/no-ones-being-honest-about-it-how-nhs-crisis-forces-patients-to-go-private
When Rosemary Duff heard how long she would have to wait for a hip replacement operation on the NHS, she felt she had no choice but to dip into her savings.
“I waited a month to see my GP, then another four months to see a consultant. His opening words were ‘unless you go private, there’s an 18-month waiting list’, which was a bit of a shock,” said Duff, 71, from Norwich. “Much against my principles, I agreed to go private.”
Duff said her hips had started to play up after the first Covid lockdown, and she had physio through the NHS that had slowed down the deterioration. But a year ago she began experiencing increased pain, was not able to walk very far and struggled to get up the stairs.
Duff, who worked in market research before retiring, spent almost £28,000 having both hips replaced last year at a private hospital run by Circle Health Group. “A lot of money out of my savings, but my children said I should go ahead and do it!” she said.
The same consultant surgeon who advised her to go private then performed the surgery at the Clementine Churchill hospital in Harrow.
Many consultants split their time between working for the NHS and the private sector, with rules in place aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest.
Lengthening NHS waiting lists, which hit a peak of nearly 7.8 million in England in September, have prompted more people to take out private medical insurance in recent years, despite its rising cost. Others are dipping into savings or taking out loans to pay for routine operations, often spending thousands of pounds.
The waiting list was still 7.5 million in February, compared with 4.6 million before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the British Medical Association, and close to half of the patients had been waiting for 18 weeks or longer. The waiting list is expected to “start to fall consistently but slowly from the middle of 2024”, the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts – though it is likely to exceed pre-pandemic levels until 2030.
