Experience as a patient – 4
In March 2007 I experienced a weekend of a very painful parotid swelling. I made an appointment with my GP but I had thoroughly researched which consultant I wanted to see. I wanted to be seen privately (we are in BUPA) at our local private hospital by an expert in salivary glands. I found out that a consultant oro-maxillary surgeon did private work at that hospital and my GP wrote a referral letter. I went to the hospital to book my appointment. The appointment was the day before we had planned to go to Italy. The swelling settled quickly so I did not mind waiting the couple of weeks for the appointment. I was sitting in the waiting room watching a Rolls Royce pulling up at the front door when my consultant came out of his room and returned 5 minutes later and called me in. He examined me and recommended I had a sialogram by a consultant radiologist who is an expert on salivary glands. He explained that the reason he had popped out before he saw me was to book an operating theatre for that afternoon as he wanted to sort it out before we left on holiday! What a contrast between private and NHS care. I was ashamed to an extent. It turned out that there was no need for any operation.
The sialogram was to be undertaken after our holiday in a very old local hospital. I walked what seemed to be a mile along corridors and old walkways connecting decrepit buildings (A new hospital has been approved for this site and work will start soon). When I was called, I entered a room which had a state of the art image intensifier. This room and its equipment was NHS but my sialogram was a private one. The consultant radiologist was an expert in dental problems and salivary glands. There was a senior radiographer and two others there during my x- ray. It was a bit complicated but everything was explained to me very well and it was not at all uncomfortable. Gone are the days when an x-ray film is produced. All the pictures were on the computer and the consultant explained them to me and that all was OK. She thought it was probably a small stone. She said if I had any further problems she would sort it out and that there was no need to see the oro-maxillary surgeon again. I wrote to him to thank him and telephoned BUPA to see how the bill is to be dealt with. The whole thing cost me £100 (the excess) and BUPA £ . The BUPA premiums are about £2400 per annum and this includes a decent travel insurance for Europe. We have only made a couple of claims in the past 10 years or so amounting to about £3000 and £2000 of this was a holiday cancellation due to illness. We both feel that if we cancel the premiums this is tempting fate.
In March 2007 I experienced a weekend of a very painful parotid swelling. I made an appointment with my GP but I had thoroughly researched which consultant I wanted to see. I wanted to be seen privately (we are in BUPA) at our local private hospital by an expert in salivary glands. I found out that a consultant oro-maxillary surgeon did private work at that hospital and my GP wrote a referral letter. I went to the hospital to book my appointment. The appointment was the day before we had planned to go to Italy. The swelling settled quickly so I did not mind waiting the couple of weeks for the appointment. I was sitting in the waiting room watching a Rolls Royce pulling up at the front door when my consultant came out of his room and returned 5 minutes later and called me in. He examined me and recommended I had a sialogram by a consultant radiologist who is an expert on salivary glands. He explained that the reason he had popped out before he saw me was to book an operating theatre for that afternoon as he wanted to sort it out before we left on holiday! What a contrast between private and NHS care. I was ashamed to an extent. It turned out that there was no need for any operation.
The sialogram was to be undertaken after our holiday in a very old local hospital. I walked what seemed to be a mile along corridors and old walkways connecting decrepit buildings (A new hospital has been approved for this site and work will start soon). When I was called, I entered a room which had a state of the art image intensifier. This room and its equipment was NHS but my sialogram was a private one. The consultant radiologist was an expert in dental problems and salivary glands. There was a senior radiographer and two others there during my x- ray. It was a bit complicated but everything was explained to me very well and it was not at all uncomfortable. Gone are the days when an x-ray film is produced. All the pictures were on the computer and the consultant explained them to me and that all was OK. She thought it was probably a small stone. She said if I had any further problems she would sort it out and that there was no need to see the oro-maxillary surgeon again. I wrote to him to thank him and telephoned BUPA to see how the bill is to be dealt with. The whole thing cost me £100 (the excess) and BUPA £ . The BUPA premiums are about £2400 per annum and this includes a decent travel insurance for Europe. We have only made a couple of claims in the past 10 years or so amounting to about £3000 and £2000 of this was a holiday cancellation due to illness. We both feel that if we cancel the premiums this is tempting fate.
posted by Ivan at 10:09 AM
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