One in six people in the UK now uses some form of private healthcare, according to data from the King's Fund. That figure has roughly doubled over the past decade. The reasons are not hard to understand. NHS waiting lists for elective care reached record levels in 2023 and 2024, and for many patients, the prospect of waiting months or longer for a consultation, a scan, or a procedure simply does not fit the life they are trying to lead.
Private healthcare is not a luxury reserved for a narrow group. Increasingly, it is a practical decision that ordinary families are weighing up, often for the first time. This article is a straightforward attempt to help you think it through.
What the NHS Waiting List Reality Looks Like Right Now
As of early 2024, NHS England data showed more than 7.5 million people on waiting lists for elective treatment in England. The median wait for consultant-led treatment was running at around 14 weeks, but for many specialties, orthopaedics in particular, waits of 12 to 18 months for surgery are not uncommon in parts of the West Midlands.
For some conditions, the wait is more than an inconvenience. Knee pain that prevents walking, a hernia that limits daily activity, a gallbladder problem that causes repeated flare-ups: these are not conditions that are comfortable to manage across a year-long queue. The NHS remains an extraordinary institution, and many patients are well served by it. But the waiting list problem is real, and choosing to be seen privately is a reasonable response to it.
What Private Healthcare Actually Gives You
Speed is the most obvious advantage, but it is not the only one. When you are seen privately, you typically get a named consultant at a time of your choosing, a thorough first appointment without the time pressure of a ten-minute slot, and a clear pathway to investigation or treatment rather than a referral that then joins another queue.
At Optimised Care in Bromsgrove, patients can usually be seen within a few days of contacting us. That applies whether the need is a private GP appointment, a specialist orthopaedic consultation, or a referral for a surgical procedure. Investigations such as blood tests and imaging can often be arranged at the same site, which removes the coordination burden that patients sometimes find exhausting when navigating care across multiple providers.
Continuity matters too. Seeing the same consultant from initial appointment through to procedure and follow-up is the standard in private care. It makes a tangible difference to how informed and supported patients feel.
The Conditions Most Commonly Driving People to Private Care
Orthopaedics accounts for a significant share of elective waiting list volume. Hips and knees are the most frequently cited. Mr Panos Makrides, who leads hip and knee replacement at the Bromsgrove site, brings over 15 years of arthroplasty experience and is currently the only surgeon in the West Midlands offering the Direct Superior Approach to hip replacement, a muscle-sparing technique associated with faster recovery and reduced post-operative discomfort. Patients waiting 12 months or more on an NHS list often find that a private hip replacement or knee replacement can be scheduled within weeks of a first consultation here.
General surgery is another common entry point. Gallbladder disease, hernias, and similar abdominal conditions are often lifestyle-limiting well before they become emergencies. Mr Harmeet Khaira, a Cambridge- and Oxford-trained consultant surgeon with over 25 years in practice, performs gallbladder removal and hernia repair using minimally invasive techniques, frequently as day-case procedures under local anaesthetic where appropriate. His role as a Council Member of the British Association of Day Surgery reflects a specific commitment to procedures that let patients go home the same day.
ENT, urology, foot and ankle, and gynaecology are also areas where NHS waits are long and private alternatives are genuinely well-placed to help. You can find the full range of services available across our surgical specialties.
What Private Healthcare Costs, and How to Think About It
Cost is the question most people have but sometimes feel awkward asking. Private care is not free, and it is honest to say so. A GP appointment typically costs in the region of £100. A specialist consultation is usually between £150 and £250. Surgical procedures vary considerably by type and complexity, and a full breakdown is available before you commit to anything.
Many patients use private medical insurance, and our team can advise on whether a particular procedure or consultation is likely to be covered. Others pay out of pocket, often after concluding that the cost of a single procedure is manageable when weighed against months of restricted life. Some choose a hybrid approach: a private consultation and investigation to get a clear diagnosis, then a return to NHS care for treatment with a clearer plan in hand.
None of these routes is inherently right or wrong. What matters is that you have the information to make the choice that fits your circumstances.
When Private GP Care Makes Sense
Surgical needs are not the only reason to consider private care. For many patients, the starting point is simply getting seen by a GP quickly. The average wait for a routine NHS GP appointment in England now exceeds two weeks in many practices, with some areas reporting waits of three to four weeks for a non-urgent appointment.
Our private GP service offers same-week access, face-to-face, by telephone, or by video. The clinical scope is broad: blood testing, prescriptions, referrals, health checks, management of ongoing conditions, and onward pathways to specialist care when needed, all within a single CQC-registered hospital setting. Patients who are referred to our orthopaedic, urology, ENT, or surgical teams from the GP service benefit from shared records and continuity that a standalone clinic cannot always provide.
For people managing a condition that has been difficult to get reviewed on the NHS, or who simply want unhurried time with a clinician to talk through a concern properly, this kind of access has real value.
Making a Sensible Decision
Private healthcare is not for every situation. For emergencies, the NHS is where you should go. For conditions that are genuinely well-managed within current NHS wait times, the case for going private may be weaker. But for elective procedures, diagnostic investigations, or primary care access where the NHS queue is causing real disruption to your health or your daily life, private care is worth considering seriously.
The most useful first step is usually a conversation. Knowing what a particular pathway would involve, how long it would take, and what it would cost takes most of the uncertainty out of the decision. If you are weighing it up for yourself or someone in your family, our team is straightforward to reach, and there is no obligation attached to making that initial enquiry.
For context on current NHS waiting times and the scope of the elective care backlog, NHS England's referral-to-treatment statistics are updated monthly and give a clear picture of what patients across the country are currently facing.
