I wonder if anyone can explain this bit of NHS idiocy to me.

A friend has suffered from arthritis for many years and as such it's a specific exclusion on her private medical insurance policy - fair enough, it happens. She's recently been diagnosed with a condition (the name of which escapes me) where several of her toes need to have the bones replaced with plastic inserts to stop quite severe pain when walking. Her consultant has told he that he can perform the surgery privately for about £10k, which she's reluctant to do, or he can do the work done for her 'free' on the NHS - although the actual NHS costs are about £8k - but she's got to wait about 12 weeks to have it done.

The idiocy comes in to play in that if the work is done privately her consultant will use implants which he buys from the USA which cost about £1k, but if he does the work on the NHS he has to use cheap ones which only cost about £250. The American implants have a life expectancy of at least 16 years whereas the NHS implants have a life expectancy of only 8 years, after which they'll need replacing at the same £8k cost. She's asked him if she can pay the difference between the implant costs and have the better quality ones used, but apparently NHS policy absolutely refuses to allow that, it's a case of "use ours or don't have the surgery done".

So for the sake of £750, which she's willing to pay herself, over the next 10 or so years the total cost to the NHS will be for two separate lots of surgery at a total cost of at least £16k (plus inflation), or at least £7,250 more than it needs be, simply because of 'policy'. Where on earth is the common sense or logic in that?

Originally Posted by Midas

I wonder if anyone can explain this bit of NHS idiocy to me.

A friend has suffered from arthritis for many years and as such it's a specific exclusion on her private medical insurance policy - fair enough, it happens. She's recently been diagnosed with a condition (the name of which escapes me) where several of her toes need to have the bones replaced with plastic inserts to stop quite severe pain when walking. Her consultant has told he that he can perform the surgery privately for about £10k, which she's reluctant to do, or he can do the work done for her 'free' on the NHS - although the actual NHS costs are about £8k - but she's got to wait about 12 weeks to have it done.

The idiocy comes in to play in that if the work is done privately her consultant will use implants which he buys from the USA which cost about £1k, but if he does the work on the NHS he has to use cheap ones which only cost about £250. The American implants have a life expectancy of at least 16 years whereas the NHS implants have a life expectancy of only 8 years, after which they'll need replacing at the same £8k cost. She's asked him if she can pay the difference between the implant costs and have the better quality ones used, but apparently NHS policy absolutely refuses to allow that, it's a case of "use ours or don't have the surgery done".

So for the sake of £750, which she's willing to pay herself, over the next 10 or so years the total cost to the NHS will be for two separate lots of surgery at a total cost of at least £16k (plus inflation), or at least £7,250 more than it needs be, simply because of 'policy'. Where on earth is the common sense or logic in that?

The logic is in the NHS.

Of course the NHS is illogical anyway, why force me to pay for anothers rationed Healthcare?All who take from it should be able to proove they paid in, no pay, no get, simple and LOGICAL!!!