[Margaret Pilkington]

So if you needed a hip replacement and the surgeon said 'we can't do it at RBH...But I can do it at Gisburn Park..a private hospital(but at no cost to you) are you saying you would turn it down?

It makes no sense to have facilities standing idle when they can be tendered out to be used by the NHS to the clinical benefit of patients.
My daughter needed a CT scan and on the day it was to be done they were inundated with emergencies(which would have meant either a very long wait in the department or re scheduling the appointment..?Instead she was given the choice of having this done at Beardwood.....they had slts vacant and we were not being asked to stump up for this service..so what do you think we chose?
Beardwood, of course.
Their spare capacity is tendered out to the NHS which means that emergencies are dealt with on a clinical need basis, but scheduled appointments are not disrupted.
Isn't that the best of both worlds?

When you are being asked to either pay for services upfront, or have secondary medical insurance then that is the time to be worried