Why People Might Choose Fixed Price Surgery
In most cases people do not see the point in paying for private health care when this service is freely available (free at the point of delivery that is - it is funded by general taxation).
But there are situations when someone might turn to private health care and 'fixed price surgery'.
As you may have already guessed, the term 'fixed price surgery' is a surgical procedure that is priced on as-needed basis.
Running concurrently with the NHS, private hospitals have offered private procedures and the fixed price surgery idea is one that is becoming more and more popular.
People often are attracted to the idea of fixed price surgery because they know exactly what a given procedure will cost, and can therefore plan for it financially.
While much of private health care is funded by health insurance policies, fixed price surgery tends not to be paid for in this way.
It is quite common for someone who relies, for the majority of their health maintenance requirements, on the NHS - to consider a one off procedure with a private clinic or hospital.
This decision is frequently based on the fact that for certain procedure in the NHS, the waiting lists are very long.
An instance of fixed price surgery might be one that reduces this waiting to the bare minimum, or indeed to no waiting at all.
It is often those who are perhaps a little elderly or infirm who do not wish to wait too long for the procedure and, additionally, do not want to share a hospital ward with other people.
In a private hospital, a patient will receive their own personal room.
This also removes the possibility of mixed sex wards, which is still something that happens in British NHS hospitals.
While most people would agree that the NHS is still very reliable for the majority of medical procedures, there are certain situations where paying for fixed price surgery can make life that little bit easier.
The way such procedures are organised also means that even people on a moderate income can afford these one-off procedures, so they spend less time waiting, less time recovering - and more time to spend doing what they want to do instead.
Among the current medical options in the UK, fixed price surgery is here to stay.