Frances Ryan’s article rings familiar bells (Young people want to ‘go private’ – I’m a lifelong supporter of the NHS, but I can see why, 20 August). I have been waiting 60 weeks for a partial knee replacement. The hospital website and the NHS website say “average patient waiting time 18 weeks”.
However, at every stage my wait has been beset by avoidable delays: two cancelled appointments rescheduled months later, three months’ delay reviewing the MRI scan, referral from one consultant to another – a “new referral” – and a 12-week wait. After my first pre-op, failure to follow up on outstanding investigations necessitated a second pre-op, after which the clearance for surgery was not communicated to admissions until I pursued it, four weeks later.
The current message is that they “will try to give me a date within eight weeks”. A complaint to the Patient Relations Service elicited the explanation: “That’s just the way we do things.” Meanwhile, formal complaints elicit long-delayed responses full of nonsensical obfuscation. If the Department of Health and Social Care is relying on waiting-list information from hospital trusts like this, then plans for NHS reform are doomed to fail.
I could have had my surgery privately at the same NHS hospital, with the same consultant, within weeks of referral. If I’d gone private 14 months ago, I’d probably have been able to enjoy 2025 – mobile, and drug and pain-free. Perhaps I’ll go private next time?
Ed Mason
Kendal, Cumbria
Unlike Frances Ryan, I am fortunate to have never faced the dilemma of needing to use private healthcare because of the apparent failings of the NHS. But despite her personal circumstances I think she might reflect on the fact that individual patients buying care does have a wider impact upon other patients who may have greater clinical needs.
The private physiotherapist she used may have been wholly independent, but the overwhelming majority of clinicians working in private healthcare also work part-time in the NHS. The fact that they are moonlighting, treating those choosing to pay, directly contributes to what Ryan describes as the NHS’s “sky‑high” waiting lists.
In what is now very much a our “me first” society, it is swimming against the tide to refer to the common good. But accessing private healthcare is anything but a neutral act. It significantly worsens the prospects of those who are unable, or unwilling, to take this step, whose health problems are often considerably worse than those of the queue-jumpers.
David Hinchliffe
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
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