Should I go Private?
Aspiro Health care recognises that patients absolutely have the right to choose their provider and for many reasons may choose to be seen privately for their care and that there are some schemes available where the NHS may fund or part fund this. The responsibility for making this decision is entirely the patients and there are a few factors to consider.
How much will it cost?
When choosing to go private, you may need to consider if it will be a one off review, if there will be a course of treatment, investigations like blood test or scans. There will be a cost to all of these when going private, and we should not use the NHS resources to fund private practice. This means we cannot request private tests for you at your specialist’s advice. There are also legal reasons we cannot take responsibility for ordering for any other doctor. Ask in advance if your insurance will cover all of this or if you are paying yourself what the provider will include in their package of care and whether they think this is all you will need. We want you to get the best care you can.
How will all my doctors know what I am being prescribed and be able to ensure this is safe?
When you see an NHS consultant, they will write to us advising what they think your diagnosis is and how they plan to treat this, sometimes we’ll agree, sometimes we’ll write back letting them know there are other factors of your health they need to take into account. They will also often, but not always, have access to part of your GP record and results. Private teams do not have to do this, but you can ask them to send us clinic letters and you should always get a copy for yourself in case you need to share it with us, or a new provider, in the future. You can also use the NHS app to show them any information they may require.
How do I know they are qualified to do what they say and that they are following national guidelines?
Our doctors are regulated and reviewed by Aspiro Healthcare in a variety of ways to ensure their colleagues agree with their decisions and are abiding by agreed safety guidelines on best care practice. However, the majority of private providers will do the same but the responsibility to check this is yours as we cannot recommend a specific provider although we would always suggest sticking to clinicians who have the same role in the NHS as they do in there private practice – you can ask them !
Will you prescribe the medication they recommend for me?
Ideally, no. Currently the NHS guidance is that patients should either be treated by the NHS or Privately, not mixing the both for a condition.
Private providers will request we enter into a Shared Care Agreement. For this to happen the specialist and the GP need to be happy that they will each fulfill their agreement and act in the patients’ best interests to keep them safe, and to be appropriately qualified/insured to abide by the agreement.
As GP’s we have the right to refuse to enter into a shared care agreement with any provider if we deem it be an unsafe arrangement, including other NHS teams. If we feel the patient is not having the safety checks needed, or we are not able to do our share of the monitoring. With private providers we have no assurances that they will do as they need to. Our shared care polices are designed for NHS use, meaning they do not always cover issues that can occur in private care where as if we supply the drug to you, we will hold full responsibility for doing so.
At Aspiro Healthcare Northants, we have decided we will not enter into a share care agreement with any private providers as we are not willing to accept the legal duty of care for prescribing medications that we are not allowed to start without the support of our NHS specialist colleagues. This means, if you are recommended to start one of these drugs you will need to request a private prescription form your specialist for as long as you need to be on it.
The British Medical Association guidance clearly lays this out;
“Shared care” with private provider
“Sometimes the care of a patient is shared between two doctors, usually a GP and a specialist, and there is a formalised written ‘shared care agreement’ setting out the position of each, to which both parties have willingly agreed. Where these arrangements are in place, GP providers can arrange the prescriptions and appropriate investigations, and the results are fully dealt with by clinicians with the necessary competence under the shared care arrangement. There is NHS guidance available about this.
Shared Care with private providers is not recommended due to the general NHS constitution principle of keeping as clear a separation as possible between private and NHS care. Shared Care is currently set up as an NHS service, and entering a shared care arrangement may have implications around governance and quality assurance as well as promoting health inequalities. A private patient seeking access to shared care should therefore have their care completely transferred to the NHS. Shared care may be appropriate where private providers are providing commissioned NHS services and where appropriate shared care arrangements are in place.
All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so even where agreements are in place, practices can decline shared care requests on clinical and capacity grounds. The responsibility for the patient’s care and ongoing prescribing then remains the responsibility of the private provider”