Private medical cover in the UK.

[sobrique]

A new job brings with it a new benefits package. This one has a flexible benefits scheme, and amongst other things, that means private medical insurance.
Does anyone have any experience with such things - Bupa coverage? I've ... had it in the past, but haven't ever used it, not do I know ... well, how it actually works. I mean, I'm used to the NHS being quite good - go to GP, get treated.

How are things different if you have PMI?

(One of the other elective benefits is up to 40 days annual leave, which is yummy. Maybe not this year, but still...)

Comments

[draconas-rage.livejournal.com]

Nice on the 40 days.

Basically private is a godsend for anything that is not life-threatening. Because the NHS has to spend so much effort dealing with those of us that are dieing.

The general pattern is this, go to GP, listen to what they say, and as soon as they say "I think I need to refer you to X?" say you have private medical cover, generally they go "right I can send you to Y". You ring up Y and make an appointment, saying you are a bupa member, first time you go they will generally want to see some form of certificate/plan number.

You may have an excess that you will have to pay, I got caught by that, though I was able to claim the excess back from the company, check your paperwork.

Difference:
September 2009 I ended up in A&E with some unpleasant symptoms which were determined to be non-critical after a night, I was referred to a specialist and ended up having an IUV scan. Seeing the specialist took about 2 months, the scan another month, then another month to get back to me.

This year: I went to my GP with similar symptoms. After a little bit of GPs attempting various random remedies to possible problems they referred me to a specialist, I got them to send me private.
I had an appointment the following week.
A scan 2 days later.
Follow up appointment and repeat prescription a week after.

the only downside is if they give you a prescription you will have to pay privately, though i did not find significant difference, and once it became a repeat prescription the specialist wrote to my doctor to get them to repeat it for me, so it is now an NHS one.

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

I'm covered (still) under my Mum's Benenden Society cover, which is very good, and I've used a couple of times. It's not your standard PMI. If you are put on an NHS waiting list and the list means you won't be seen for 6 weeks or more then they pay for you to see the same consultant privately, which can dramatically reduce the wait, depending on how much private work that consultant does, or failing that, to see a different consultant in the same field.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

I would NEVER choose private over the NHS again. The NHS is just plain better. Private means pretty nurses, nice waiting rooms and rapid service, the NHS means much better actual treatment.

[jorune.livejournal.com]

It is often the same people who work in both. Where Private tends to win out over the NHS are the easily treatable, high degree of success treatments where a person either does not wish to wait or wants it happen according to their timetable.

[fishrgreat.livejournal.com]

My Grandmother going private meant getting an appointment, diagnosis and treatment several months than would have been available via the NHS.
When she slipped a disc in her back she went to a BUPA hospital where her back specialist also worked, and got the same treatment as on the NHS, but faster and in a private room that looked and felt rather more like a hotel...

Paul has BUPA, and I'll most likely go on it as well. I think it's worth it if something does happen.

[queex.livejournal.com]

Don't feed the machine of Evil!

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

Had it in several previous jobs, never used it.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

The major difference being that consultants on the NHS don't receive financial incentives for sending you off for surgery you don't need and aren't really suitable for anyway.