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Originally Posted by Damien
...Its will come down to £1 Billion pounds taken from the NHS to help pay for peoples private operations without a big dent in waiting times
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you might not be aware of this but where the waiting list exceeds targets, the current policy (a Labour one) is to send the person to have the operation done privately and PAID FOR BY THE NHS! so the conservative idea might (ironically) save the NHS money - firstly by giving an incentive for loads more people to go private and secondly by reducing the waiting lists thus stopping the NHS funding 100% of treatment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0%2C...0418%2C00.html
and here's a story to amuse you...
my friend is quite ill and trys to book to see his consultant because he needs to have an operation done but he's told he needs to wait X number of weeks before he can see the consultant so he pays around £150 of his own money to see the consultant privately.
He sees the consultant who agrees he needs the operation...
"great when can you book me in for it, I would like it done on the NHS as I cant afford to pay for it privately"
consultant says "sorry, I can only book you for a private operation if you want it on the NHS you'll have to make an appointment to see me again but this time an NHS appointment"
obviously my friend is very angry at this point having spent £150 to jump the NHS consultation queue only to find this was pointless and a waste of cash.
So he ends up seeing the consultant again after a few weeks and the operation is agreed - and this is the brilliant bit... he's now outside the waiting list limit so the local NHS trust PAY the FULL cost of his operation to be done PRIVATELY!!! Is this how they keep the waiting lists down?
Anyway, to top everything else... originally he was within the waiting list and had he not been made to wait for the NHS consultation, the operation would have been able to be done on the NHS!!!