O/T Its surprising how people vote

[KerrAvon]

Forget Patient C thrown in to confuse and complicate the original question.
Where does private Patient B have his operation ? Do all private patients all go to separately built theatres with different staff ? If the private group employing the consultant are "buying" time in the NHS theatre, say 50% of the time, then Patient A will have to wait twice as long in pain, while the private one is jumping ahead of him in the shorter private queue. If there was no advantage in "going private" then why bother ?

Why should we forget patient C? Because it's inconvenient for your argument?

If person B lived in Barnsley and wanted to go private, he or she would have a host of options. Staying locally, he or she could go to the Thornbury Hospital in Sheffield: https://www.bmihealthcare.co.uk/hosp...ry-hospital#na with it’s four operating theatres and 71 beds. Alternatively if patient B had a profits allergy like animal, he or she could use the Nuffield Hospital in Leeds: https://www.nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals/leeds/about-us

At least one of the surgeons who works at the Leeds Nuffield Hospital also works at the NHS Barnsley Hospital (I’d name him, but am concerned that a member of the lunatic fringe who is currently posting on this thread would see that as an invitation to start sending him abusive messages). He works at the Barnsley Hospital from Monday to Thursday and at the Leeds Nuffield on Fridays. What that means is that if patient B chooses to see him at the Nuffield and has treatment there, that cannot in any way push people back on the NHS list at Barnsley, And, as I have stated, his choice can only serve to shorten the list at Barnsley.

My coffee shop example doesn’t seem to have helped so let me give you another example; back in the mists of time when I started out in work, there was a period when I had two jobs – I had a day job and, in the evenings and weekends , I worked behind a bar (in an NHS Hospital Social Club, funnily enough). I can categorically state that no matter how busy I was during the day job, that had no bearing upon the time it took for people to be served drinks in the bar. That’s because even though I am only one person, I had two jobs, in two different places, with two sets of customers at two different times, just like the surgeon I have described above.

Yes, NHS hospitals do provide some limited private services. The notion that it utilises anything like 50% of NHS theatre time or that theatres are in use 100% of the time (upon which your argument is predicated) is just plain wrong. Operating theatres are expensive to staff and operate and have a lot of down time in consequence. The provision of private services use some of that down time because it is funded from outside the NHS. It’s also a source of funding for the NHS that assists them to balance the books and thus to provide services to NHS patients.

People choose private, because it is generally faster and more convenient (patients have a choice of when and where they receive treatment). Staff to patient ratios are generally higher than in the NHS In addition, people often regard private hospitals to be ‘nicer’ places to be with generally private rooms rather than multiple bed wards and better food.