I am really angry to read that my local hospital is getting a new cancer ward for private patients when some patients have to travel to London for their treatment. i feel that life savinf treatment should be the same for everyone x
FormerMember
Sorry Dotty, but money speaks, and
many consultants pay for there big
houses and holidays from there private
patients. Also even us poorer people have
to wait so long before thy get seen that
thy spend there hard earned money going private because its there lives at
i would like to add that i worked as admin in nhs hospital and the consultants doctors nurses worked very long hours +our boss ...a professor ....had private patients ,,,,,, and a nice house ,,,he never had as many hols as me !!!! he devoted his time to ALL his patients
you may find nhs patients will be treated in the new private hospital
Just thought I would have my say on the subject of private care for cancer patients.
I have just undergone 6 sessions of chemotherapy at the Christie Hospital in Manchester in a private suite. Ok, you have a room to yourself, there is no waiting around and you get lunch provided. The nurses assured me that the treatment is exactly the same under the NHS but you get treated on a general ward. The consultants only charge for their consultation and the cost of chemotherapy etc is paid direct to the hospital by the insurance companies. I receive copy invoices from BUPA for all my treatment so know this to be fact.
Private patients are actually helping NHS patients by lightening their load. We have been paying into BUPA for the past 20 years and have never had to make a claim until now.
I am about to start a course of radiotherapy at the same hospital but because they do not accept private patients for radiotherapy I am under the NHS. I was seen by a doctor within a week of completing my chemotherapy treatment and radiotherapy will commence in 3 weeks. My consultant told me that even though the Christie Hospital didn't accept private patients for radiotherapy he assured me they were the best in their field.
Thanks for listening and please remember there's two sides to every story.
Sorry but I have to agree with Dottee, we have used both of the major cancer units in the north west, both of which have private wings. To get to either of these we have to travel at least 50 miles each way, because our local hospitals do not deal with this type of cancer. This is gruelling on the both of us, I am also disabled so getting hubby there is a nightmare. The first one we went to was easier to get to but after they made two major mistakes with hubbys life we were forced to change hospitals, the further costs of getting there to be endured by us. We have been going to the one mentioned in Manchester since 2003, and low and behold they also made a mistake, which only came to light after I asked for a second opinion from another unit in London.
Due to the negligence at the first hospital we have seen both wings in the one mentioned. When we went to the private wing, which is lovely, we were treated like royalty, I even got a drink!! No waiting around!
Now on the NHS wing, you can be waiting as we did last week, upto 10hrs for a bed for planned chemo, during which time you are left wandering around the hospital, admitedly hubby was given a voucher for a sandwich and a biscuit but no drink and as for me, tough I am only the carer. So I have to use the newly refurbished coffe bar which charges the same prices as the high street, so it costs around £15 everytime hubby is admitted. The 'new' coffee machine makes a lot of money for the hospital and yes I do understand that they need money but is this not wrong, an NHS hospital making money from some of the most vunerable in society, the same people they are treating. I watch people who are dependant on patient transport being made to wait upto six hours just to get home, where they can then be as sick as they like. These same people have to pay these prices to get a drink whilst being made to wait. These are people who are fighting to get money to survive, they are not on a day out. These are people who have just had their normal life taken from them, most of whom have worked for years and they are embarressed by their new financial circumstances so they say nothing.
The same hospital has introduced parking charges since we have been going there, this is a hospital that only treats cancer patients and these charges can be such a burden for most. I am one of the lucky ones who has a badge but when the Prime Minister came for a visit a few months ago the disabled parking was blocked off, meaning that we had to park in the side streets, in the pouring down rain whilst hubby was due to have a line fitted. The PM took priority!
When we were going for day treatment it could take upto 18hrs to get 2hrs of chemo, and again the carers have to pay for everything. This year alone it has cost us over £1000 in fuel costs just to get there! It takes upto six hours to get a prescription on the NHS wings.
Also both my sister and I are both under the same doctor for our hereditary spine disease, my sister is private and I am not. My sister does not have to wait around to see the doc, I do. My sister gets her spine measured every six months, I am supposed to but the last time was over five years ago. The joke here is we are both seen in the same hospital.Why?
When my dad who is 80 yrs old was really unwell a few years ago , he was seen on the NHS, who just put it all down to old age. My older sister was so frustrated after 18mths that she paid for my dad to be seen at the local private hospital, by the same doctors. My dad was sent that day to the NHS hospital to have tests, and it turned out to be a carcinoma of the appendix. The doctor told us that by paying privately we would now not have to wait months for dad to get treatment at the NHS hospital as that would be bypassed. Great for my dad, but what about all those people who had to wait because they did not have money. Alot of the doctors that work at the private hospital also work at our local NHS hospital and they can bypass the waiting lists if someone pays them for a consultation. The private hospital has no A & E so if there is a problem during surgery they then send the patient to the NHS hospital.
We need this government to look into how many people are having to travel miles and miles whilst being very ill, we need NHS hospitals to be totally funded and not have to rely on the kindness of its patients, and when I was in a meeting at the said cancer unit the other week I said that the hospital needed to realise that it was not a business and that they are dealing with human beings and not cans of beans. If the hospitals did not have to employ so many buracrats and let the medical staff do the job then money would not be an issue. I know so many consultants that are no longer in control of who, or when they treat, they are being told what to do by people with no medical knowledge and the system is in a state.
I saw one of my consultants a few months ago when my mum was referred to him. He asked why he had not seen me in a while. I told him that he had discharged me. He seemed surprised so he checked, then told me that he would not have discharged me because I am classed as a chronic patient but in fact the hospital had discharged me because they now have to do this to get the lists down because the docs cannot have too many people on their list, but on the discharge sheet to my GP it did say that should I need to I am able to go straight back and see him - I asked him how I was supposed to know this, I did not see the discharge paper. I just thought that my time with him was at an end and that I just have to get on with it on my own.
I have spoken with my GP and if I pay privately then I will get the treatment I need, sad thing is I am not able to do such so just have to put up with my health the way it is.
It is not just the patients, I get very angry when I listen to nurses having to pay to park at work, why, without them being there we would not have a hospital.
Sorry for ranting on, but in nearly 15yrs I have watched, and listened to so many cancer patients, who are too ill to travel but have to, too ill to work but cannot get the help they need financially yet have to endure more costs just to get to and from hospitals.
Going private is a personal choice dependant on circumstances but the government must not take away from the NHS to get a better service. If they do we will end up like the States, and so many very ill people there are unable to get treatment because they have no money.
And we must also remember that many of those who use the NHS were told many years ago that by paying National Insurance contributions would allow them direct access to treatment at a time when they needed it, so technically they have paid for this service.
