According to NHS Choices: “If you need to go to hospital to see a specialist, you have the right to choose which hospital you're referred to by your GP. This legal right, which was introduced in April 2009, lets you choose from any hospital offering a suitable treatment that meets NHS standards and costs.”According to NHS Choices: “If you need to go to hospital to see a specialist, you have the right to choose which hospital you're referred to by your GP. This legal right, which was introduced in April 2009, lets you choose from any hospital offering a suitable treatment that meets NHS standards and costs.”
The totalhealth website is entirely written by senior teaching hospital consultants. These consultants explain the latest treatment options that are available for your condition – in plain English, and this is therefore the information that is needed in order to make an informed choice. The vast majority of the doctors on this website are the most senior doctors within their departments at the top NHS teaching hospitals; they also see patients at private hospitals. The point is that the information provided here is not exclusive to private patients, and all patients have a “legal right” to be referred for the best care that is available. Links are available from the doctors to both their NHS and private practices. Once you feel that you have sufficient information on your condition and have seen the latest expert advice on treatment options, it should then be entirely down to the patient, with help from the GP, to decide where to go.
Access to Latest Treatment Technologies
For example, there is a lot of excitement about some of the latest treatments available for cancer such as Nanoknife, CyberKnife® or Gamma Knife. Professor Leen or Drs Ian Sabin and Chris Nutting describe these state-of-the-art, non-drug approaches in their articles. All these consultants are available via their NHS hospitals including Hammersmith, The Royal Marsden and Barts, and also via The Princess Grace, The Harley Street Clinic or The Wellington Hospital.
Equally, the UK’s acknowledged leading orthopaedic surgeons such as Mr Khai Lam (back surgeon) or Mr Richard Sinnerton (shoulder surgeon) are happy to see patients either through their NHS departments, or via their private hospitals. Again, the choice is entirely down to the patient either via the GP and the NHS ‘Choose and Book’ system (this is now due to be replaced by NHS e-referral), or as a self-referral.
Professional Private GP e-referrals via GP-refer
GP Dr Edin Lakasing, Council Member for the Section of General Practice with Primary Healthcare, at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM). Says, "It seems that new treatment approaches and technologies become available every day. Whilst this is good news it does mean that navigating the various treatment options and deciding which one is best for you, the patient, can be complicated and confusing."
Dr Lakasing goes on to say that your GP is normally the best person to guide and assist you on how you want to be treated.
"Even if you are considering paying personally or using your private health insurance to access specialist treatment it is always sensible to see your GP first.This ensures that there is proper continuity of care, which is particularly important as often the GP and other primary healthcare staff will be involved in aftercare once a patient has seen a Consultant, for example, continuing prescriptions, monitoring long-term conditions and on-going medication, arranging domiciliary care by district nurses, or even just removing sutures."
See - Choosing a private consultant; best when a shared decision between GP and patient
Whatever you are diagnosed with there are always options. For all conditions there will be numerous specialists with differing qualifications, clinic locations, treatment philosophies, charges and experience for patients to choose from. Although there are now many medical information websites these vary dramatically in quality, depth and independence. In these circumstances it is your GP who is best placed to give you the help and guidance that you need to make the decisions that are completely right for you.
GPs now also have immediate professional booking access to over 10.000 senior medical consultants who operate privately via gprefer.