

Posted 14th Sep 2015
Is it possible to pay for a private room if you go into hospital and get treated under the NHS? I have googled and it would appear to be difficult. Wonder if anyone got experience or knowledge about this.
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sorted byNOTE: if you are in hospital, from experience, being on a ward means you get checked more frequently by the nurses, plus there are people looking out for you (other patients). I had an allergic reaction and had the other patients not buzzed for the nurses I would probably be dead.
It also passes the time quicker, people watching and talking to people.
Unless you're stuck on a stroke ward, in which case it's thoroughly depressing and you're best off getting home ASAP.
Above ^^ I was talking about unexpected inpatient stays, and also planned operations
My local hospital has a private ward, whist using the NHS doctors for your medical condition (ie you're only paying for the room).
My local will only put people with norovirus or other bugs into the private rooms on the wards.
(There is however a private wing for private patients).
I learnt that from experience; as a non-virus patient and also as a patient when I picked up norovirus.
The only good thing about norovirus was the private room, but it didn't have an ensuite so I had to use a noro-virus only patients loo (ugh) and wash using the basin in the room.
I discharged myself early.
I had been in the old hospital two months before, for nearly two weeks, in the usual four bed ward. I much preferred it (apart from sharing the toilet!!). ALL the nurses I spoke to in the new hospital said that most patients preferred the four bed wards, lots of the patients are elderly and felt lonely and isolated in their single rooms. They also said as someone already mentioned, that patients used to be able to alert staff to problems with other patients in their ward, things the staff hadn't or wouldnt notice. This obv can't happen now.
Anyway, that ramble was to suggest that a small ward isn't a bad thing. Also, I don't know about nowadays, but it used to be a lot cheaper to just go into a private hospital, than pay as a private patient on the NHS. You can't just pay for a room too, you would have to be paying for your consultant privately and you'd get a bill for every blood test, drip, observation, etc you have while in. Apart from paying for your horrible NHS food!