PRIVATE SERVICES FOR NHS PATIENTS
As an NHS patient, there is nothing to prevent you seeking a private referral should you need specialist treatment. We understand that some patients will opt to have some of their treatment privately and we support your right to do so. However, to prevent any misunderstanding, we would like to take this opportunity to explain how Chafford Hundred Medical Centre works alongside private providers of healthcare.
Seeking a private specialist opinion:
What happens if I want to see a private specialist (for patients making use of health insurance)?
Your GP will write a referral letter if they feel this is appropriate (please allow 3 working days from request to collection). If you would like this emailed to you please ensure that you advise the GP and confirm your email address.
The referral letter will include any relevant medical details about you and we would encourage you to wait until you have received the letter before making an appointment with the private specialist.
Please note that if an insurance company wishes for a specific form to be completed, you may be charged for this additional work.
What happens if I want to see a private specialist (for patients who do not have a health insurance policy)?
If you do not have health insurance and wish to book directly with a private clinic, you do not require a letter and can arrange the appointment as you wish. However, it may be useful to have a letter summarising your medical history for the specialist. We can provide this information if required.
You should contact your specialist’s team or your private health care provider or insurer to organise an appointment.
Should you have any questions regarding your appointment, you should contact them directly.
Seeing the specialist:
What happens if I need a test or procedure?
If the specialist thinks that you need any tests - including blood tests - or a surgical procedure, then the specialist is responsible:
- Arranging tests and any medication that might be needed prior to the test, as well as explaining how and when you will receive a date for the test, and what to do if the date is not suitable for you.
- Giving you your results and explaining what they mean. This may be by letter or a further face to face appointment.
GP practices are being asked to do an increasing amount of blood monitoring and other procedures for private specialists and the GP is expected to take responsibility for the result. Due to rising demands on primary care, we are unable to do this unfunded work.
If we receive a request from a specialist for us to take on blood monitoring, we are likely to write back to them asking them to make alternative arrangements for their patient.
Please do not contact the Practice to discuss the results of tests organised by other doctors. It is the specialist’s responsibility to discuss this with you and the Practice will likely not have access to the results or be able to interpret them.
What happens if I need new medicines?
The specialist might suggest prescribing new medicines for you or might want to make changes to the medicines that you are already taking. They will be responsible for giving you the first prescription of any new medicine that you need to start taking straight away. Please note if you take a prescription to any NHS pharmacy, you will have to pay the actual cost of the medication rather than the current NHS standard prescription charge, which may be dependent on the medication prescribed.
In some cases, we may be able to continue to prescribe these medications on an NHS prescription. This will need to be considered by the Practice and is at the discretion of the GPs. Prior to this a full clinic letter from the specialist is required, outlining the reasons for treatment, explaining the precise details of the prescription, what it is being used to treat, how long the treatment is intended for, and what monitoring or follow-up is required before the Practice can decide whether we can continue to prescribe.
Please allow at least seven days for this letter to arrive before contacting the GP.
If a prescription is needed sooner, you should contact the specialist (usually via their secretary) for them to prescribe it.
Private specialists may suggest medications to patients which wouldn't normally be prescribed by NHS GPs. If this is the case, you will need to continue to receive them from a specialist. Please contact them directly to organise this.
The clinicians at Chafford Hundred Medical Centre believe that providing the best quality care to our patients is our top priority. When a prescription is necessary, our main considerations are effectiveness and safety.
In order to prioritise patient safety and the best value to the NHS, we are bound to prescribing from an approved list of medications from the a formulary maintained by the Mid & South Essex Medicines Optimisation Committee - Mid and South Essex Medicines Optimisation Committee - Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System
The Practise may not be able to issue you with an NHS prescription following a private consultation for the following reasons:
- If the Practice considers that there is not a clear clinical indication for the prescription, and that in the same circumstances an NHS patient would not be offered this treatment.
- If the private doctor recommends a new or experimental treatment, or recommends prescribing a medication outside of its licensed indication or outside of our formulary recommendations.
- If the medication requires complex ongoing monitoring which is not appropriate for a shared care protocol between the GP and the specialist, for example ADHD medication.
- If the GP feels that they would be acting outside of their competence by issuing the medication.
- The prescription doesn't recommend licensed doses or uses as per the British National Formulary.
- If the medication is not generally provided within the NHS.
What happens if I need to transfer my care back to the NHS?
If after seeing the specialist privately you want to be back under NHS care, national regulations allow for you to transfer back. This transfer ideally needs to be done by the private specialist who is overseeing your care. But if this is not possible, please request that your specialist writes directly to the Practice to request this.
Acute private consultations
Increasingly, some patients access private primary care (GP) consultations. In some situations, the assessment by these private clinicians generates actions, e.g. blood tests or imaging. A patient may often present to NHS primary care for these tests will be actioned. However, there may be several appropriate reasons why we may decline to action these tests. For example, private primary care providers will not have access to the extensive information that patients may have already on their NHS medical record outlining previous investigations and tests. Such information might drastically alter the appropriateness of requesting a test suggested without the ‘whole picture’.
Private blood testing (including genetics testing).
Chafford Hundred Medical Centre believes that private lab testing companies may have negative effects on the resources of publicly funded health services like the NHS. While some companies offer a review of results by a medical practitioner (which may be charged separately), others do not. Patients often ask NHS GPs to review the results of blood tests that they have purchased privately, even tests not recommended by the NHS. These may be of uncertain quality and liable to give false positive results, with follow-up consuming GPs’ and NHS laboratory time. The testing companies, meanwhile, may take no responsibility for the management of results or the costs of subsequent investigations. We will not ignore legitimate requests to investigate problems which may have been triggered by a private direct-to-consumer blood test, however this will be at the discretion of the GP for the reasons outlined above.
Further information regarding private referrals is available from the Mid & South Essex ICS - Should I go private? - Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System