Archery1969 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 10:05 am
firlandsfarm wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 9:58 am
Doctor is referring me for an Ultrasound scan of the abdomen, he think it's just a pulled muscle but he wants to make sure. Anyway I want to get it done quickly as I have a holiday upcoming and he doesn't want me doing anything strenuous (such as carrying bags etc.) until he has diagnosed the problem is. So as it only costs £100 - £150 I thought I would go private. Can't believe the bureaucracy! I can't self-refer and to get a referral I have to nominate a private clinic/hospital for the doctor to make a specific referral, he can't/won't make a general referral so I have to phone all the local clinics/hospitals to find out which can do it the fastest. Learnt not to believe their website claims that they can do it in 48 hours. Some can but some only do ultrasound scans perhaps one week a month so only offer a 48 hour service if you are lucky enough for it to be that week in the month! When advising the doctor of my choice I'm told it will take them a week to prepare the referral and to use the NHS will probably be faster!
What a nonsense.
I made sure when I took out private insurance in the UK that I didn’t need a referral letter from a GP or NHS hospital. Ended up costing me another £200 per year for the policy change. But worth it assuming you can afford it etc.
The relationship between private health insurance, providers and GP's is uneasy in my experience. All of my uses of my company BUPA were to get access to physio. It was curious to me that some GP's balked when I said I had BUPA and could they refer me. Others said "Oh great, yes we'll sort that for you".
But what was odder still was the people that treated me were both private and nhs. So I concluded I must have jumped the queue.
Fair enough I had a job I'd earned, it included BUPA and that was the landscape. But I shouldn't need that for health care IMO. I felt guilty, but I did it anyway because I needed help to get better.
