Private Healthcare

[Abbie]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of private healthcare and whether you've ever claimed anything for your children.

We're struggling a bit with my daughters ears, she's in pain and they're not getting any better so I was going to claim on her insurance to try and hurry the whole thing up a bit.

I've been speaking to my Dr but he doesn't think it will make it that much quicker, but we're still waiting for an appointment to see an ENT specialist and it doesn't look like it's going to come any time soon.

He seems to think that an ENT specialist will still want to try other forms of treatment before doing the gromits, but at least if we go private we'll get the initial appointment in the next few days, rather than weeks with the NHS

Has anyone claimed for anything like this, and if so was it worth it?

Thanks!

[*kate*]

If you go private it should speed the process up quite a lot, in my experience. DS had to wait four months for an appointment on the NHS for his ears, now he's included in our private healthcare plan he could have an appointment (probably with the same doc though) within a couple of weeks.

If you go private for your inital appointment though aren't you then restricted to getting the rest of the treatment privately? If you had your initial appointment for an opinion, then it would be difficult to swap to NHS as your daughter would then have to have the initial appt again, just via NHS iyswim? does that make sense?

Although your waiting list might not be as long as it is here. If you have the healthcare though it might be worth cutting out the wait if your daughter is in pain.

[Abbie]

Hi, thanks for the reply

Yes, we'd have the whole lot done private.

We've all got private health insurance through my OH's company so we're covered for it.

The Dr seemed to think it wouldn't make the time between seeing a specialist and having the gromits done would make it that much quicker (he confused me a bit here I have to admit), but if we can get an appointment with a specialist through the private plan within days rather than weeks/months then the process will be started a lot sooner than if we wait for an NHS appointment.

[Nics]

That doesnt make sense to me, I assume if you have the whole lot done privately you wont have to be on any NHS waiting list, you'll see an ENT consultant privately and then if he / she decides its necessary..he or she'll will do it at a private clinic...NO??

At least thats how ours works we are with BUPA.

[Abbie]

I would think that's how it would work too, we're with AXA

I think what he was trying to say was that the time from when we see the ENT consultant to the end of the treatment would be the same whether we went private or the NHS.

But I'm pretty sure we'd see the consultant quicker if we went private though. I've since discovered a friend of ours has been waiting for an appointment since Christmas so I'm not holding my breath

Although I ended up thoroughly confused by the end of the whole appointment

[scatterbrain]

I was ill in January & am still recovering now. When I came out of hospital I received my Nurologist follow up appointment...for July!. I've been very patient, but finally gave up waiting as some of my symptoms were getting worse & have made a private appointment (using my work BUPA cover). My appointment was made in less than 1 week!

I'll let you know how it goes as it's tomorrow.

Scatterbrain

[Abbie]

OH and I have decided to go private. We've had another night of screaming in pain and being dosed up on nurofen, which can't be good for her.

She starts school in September so if we start the process now, hopefully it will be sorted before then so her schooling isn't interupted.

Speaking to the claim helpline, she seems to think that we could get an appointment as early as the end of next week provided our Dr gets the claim form filled in and returned ASAP.

It's so crap though, a friend of ours has been waiting since Christmas for an appointment with an ENT consultant for her daughter's adenoids on the NHS but we can jump the queue and get an appointment within days. :angry: It's not right really.


I'll let you know how it goes as it's tomorrow.

Thank you!

[scatterbrain]

No, it doesn't seem right. But unfortunatly that's the way things are working now. I was talking to my GP about it when I saw her last week. She had absolutely no qualms about me going for a private consultation. She agreed that I should see someone earlier than July, but even if she begged she couldn't get an NHS appointment within the next couple of months. Our hospital only has one part time nurologist.

I really battled with my conscience before going private and waited 4 months of the 6 month wait for my NHS appointment, but can't wait any longer.

TBH if it was something wrong with Elena I would go private like a shot if I thought it meant she'd get treated sooner.

I hope it all goes well.

Scatterbrain

[redhed]

The issue atm is that because of the govt's obsession with waiting lists, the whole system is now geared around the waiting lists they do measure (ie consultant visit to treatment) and not the waiting lists they don't measure (ie queueing to see a consultant is not, for some reason, considered a "waiting list" and no-one measures it) So a hospital can have excellent waiting list figures by only allowing one person a year to see a consultant and treating them all next day.

That is the queue your BUPA allows you to jump. And it is easier to stay private once you're in private - the transfer can be very messy. Though that is something to bear in mind as most policies have an annual cap on usage.

The other thing is that a lot of the really good specialists in paediatrics don't do private work at all - just NHS because that's where the interesting stuff is. So it's OK if your child has something bog-standard: if they turn out to have something complex you would be better off on the NHS where the specialist consultants and facilities are - but the consultant that BUPA is paying through the nose for is hardly going to tell you that, are they?

Oh, and tests done privately don't always conform to NHS standards. So if you get a private MRI scan it won't necessarily have measured what the NHS want to see and you'll still have to queue for the NHS one.

It's all BONKERS.

[Abbie]

TBH if it was something wrong with Elena I would go private like a shot if I thought it meant she'd get treated sooner.

That's the thing, if it was me or my OH then we'd probably wait it out, but it seems almost barbaric to put a young child through pain and discomfort just for our principles

But then we've got the cover so it seems stupid not to use it.

My OH pays tax on it as well as it's counted as a benefit

[scatterbrain]

In my case the local NHS hospital doesn't have the equipment to do some of the tests I need anyway (where they will give me electric shocks to test for nerve damage) so even after waiting for 6 months for a consultants appointment I would have had to go to a different hospital later for some tests (if he felt them necessary).

Abbie - I thought the same about mine. I've been paying tax on it for 7 years, I may as well use it when I need to.

Watch out for hidden excesses (mine's £100) and caps on the value or type of treatment you are covered for by your insurance.

SB

[redhed]

Yup, typically they will not cover "chronic" conditions (eg asthma) or conditions the child is born with, or issues arising. So if your child goes into hospital because of their asthma, picks up MRSA whilst in there and needs an op or intensive care then you may not be covered for that as the MRSA would be a complication resulting from their chronic condition.

Having said that, larger companies in particular have opt-outs and opt-ins so it's always worth phoning to check. Ours will cover investigations and monitoring of chronic conditions though not treatment. So Helena can get an MRI every year on BUPA but not brain surgery to resolve the condition.

[Abbie]

I've checked with them and she should be covered.

There was a condition that they would only pay out on ENT claims if she had had a problem-free 24 months.

She has had the odd ear infection but my Dr has confirmed that they were were down to general infections rather than the actual glue ear problem so fingers crossed.

We have got an excess of £50 which isn't too bad.

[scatterbrain]

Nice doctor :D.

I've got to have a load of tests then back to him in 1 month for a follow up. I therefore should have a diagnosis and possibly treatment organised before I would even have seen an NHS neurologist.

As one of the tests is a brain scan I'm quicky loosing my feeling of guilt about going private.

Bit of a question mark at the moment about how far I'm covered, though, as my current illness is 'chronic' according to BUPA, but the neurologist thinks these new symptoms are actually something else in which case I may be covered for treatment (depending what it is). It's actually all quite confusing.

I'm glad to hear you're covered. Good luck for the appointment.

Scatterbrain