Go private, stay private?

I'm Irish but have lived away for a long time and am a bit perplexed by the healthcare system here - public v private. I don't have private medical insurance.

My understanding is if I'm referred to a consultant on the public list and the waiting time is too long, I am able, if I can afford it, to seek a private appointment and hopefully be seen sooner. However, if the consultant then diagnoses a serious illness that requires surgery or long-term treatment, am I then stuck in the private system? (which I can only afford to a point in the absence of health insurance...)

Pookla

Sorry, you have this slightly wrong.

If you're waiting beyond a certain period of time (8 months for admission or 12 months for an outpatient appointment), the national treatment purchase fund will arrange for you to be seen by a doctor in a private setting.

If you require treatment, this will be arranged under the same guidelines.

You will never have to pay unless you yourself opt to go private, in which case you can do what you want (it is your money after all) but if the NTPF arranges for you to be seen privately, they foot the bill.


If you yourself see a private doctor at any stage, you can actually opt to re-enter the public system. But you will be reclassified by both severity and when you were put on the list. Those sicker and those before you will be seen first.

Mrs OBumble

So you can go private for a specialist consultation, some tests and a follow up consultation at which a serious problem is diagnosed, and then be referred back to the public system by the private consultant? At which point your classification is based on the information that the private consultant now has provided, meaning you will likely get treated sooner than if you've just been on the list and undiagnosed?

Squiggle

Pookla wrote: »

Sorry, you have this slightly wrong.

If you're waiting beyond a certain period of time (8 months for admission or 12 months for an outpatient appointment), the national treatment purchase fund will arrange for you to be seen by a doctor in a private setting.

If you require treatment, this will be arranged under the same guidelines.

You will never have to pay unless you yourself opt to go private, in which case you can do what you want (it is your money after all) but if the NTPF arranges for you to be seen privately, they foot the bill.

AFAIK the NTPF doesn't do this any more, and hasn't been doing so since 2011 !

January

Squiggle wrote: »

AFAIK the NTPF doesn't do this any more, and hasn't been doing so since 2011 !

There is definitely some type of fund like this still running or there was up until at least July 2014 as my daughter was seen by a private consultant (in a private hospital) in December 2013 and then she also had a procedure by the same consultant (again in the same private hospital) in July 2014. I remember the letters but haven't kept them but we did not have to pay a penny. She was waiting 2 years to see an ENT.

Pity I didn't get the same treatment for my daughter who was waiting 3 years for a cardiology appointment and still hasn't seen a cardiologist, just had a screening with a paed.