Nimbus

After my wife and baby spend a day and (sleepless) night in the local NHS hospital we have decided to try and sort out some private health care. It's not that the service was bad, or the staff were poor. We (they) were treated well and felt well looked after the whole time. It's just that it was the most difficult night for them both, with 5 other babies/children in the bay, and 6 others down the corridor. Zero sleep for either of them which did not help at all (plus an admittance of a loud, abusive, disrespectful couple and their son, whom he had *no* control over at 2am in the morning [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]).

So, any suggestions?

DavidBrown

Can't go far wrong with BUPA

SD

BUPA get a massive thumbs up from me. You don't need to fill in any forms in event of a claim (form filling is often the last thing you want to worry about in such a situation) and the telephone operators were efficient and discrete. Got straight through when I called on a few occasions.

druddle

I will give BUPA a thumbs up too - i have it through work.

One thing to watch for is that in some cover plans you pay for private prescriptions, which can be pricey !!!

DAve

RESSE

iTrader: (1)

Agree with all the comments - BUPA have paid out over £250,000 over the past 10 years for my mother's illness.

PS Make sure you get the equivalent of BUPA Company Care GOLD - this will ensure all your "post" hospital costs (return visits to consultant) are covered.

Richard

zoog

I m not sure what your wife and baby were in hospital for, but you need to be aware that private providers are not really geared up for emergency health care, they are in the elective/routine market where they generally perform well and have obviously more opulent hotel facilities, so making your stay more pleasant. The actual treatment will be exactly the same as the NHS in most cases.

Furthermore, if something sudden and serious happens to you, or there are serious complications, say post-operatively, the private sector is NOT the place to be. The hospitals and staffing are simply not geared up to deal with it and you cannot beat the expertise and facilities in the NHS for these situiations. A general NHS hospital has the entire range of specialist teams available 24hrs a day, covering all eventualities. A private hospital will have a few consultants in during the day, doing a restricted range of specialties, and after hours only one or two less senior doctors will be on site covering everything until the morning. That is OK 99.9% of the time.

If you keel over after Sunday lunch one day with a heart attack you are going to be treated in the NHS at least for the acute phase.

So private health care is great as long as you realise these limitations to what it can do. It does not necessarily cut out all that sitting around in A.E with the Hoi Polloi for hours.

Nimbus

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll look into BUPA a bit further.


Zoog,

I know what you are saying re private health care and emergency admissions. I don't have a problem with that. As I've said, I have always felt that the staff and care have been first rate when I've been there. If it was an emergency I would have no concerns about the NHS with that.

My baby (and wife) was admitted for over night monitoring (nothing serious it turned out) and it's these sort of situations I'm looking to go private for.

Thanks again.

zoog

Nimbus
another tip:

If you are going for private insurance do it sooner rather than later: it is no good applying once you've got a problem as they won't insure you for that problem - I am kicking myself for procrastinating about it for years, and now I ve developed a disc problem that unless I cash-pay for (££££) I will have to suffer the NHS clinic which is so overcrowded they sent me an "URGENT" appointment for the middle of JUNE! Now if I had the insurance I'd get seen tomorrow....

Nimbus

Good advice. I'm going to try and get this sorted out in the next couple of weeks...