Wouldn't get private medical insurance. Medical insurance companies pretty much run for the hills the moment they hear the words 'pre-existing condition'. Because such people are rarely profitable. This is exactly the paradox at the core of private health care - the people most in need of medical care often cost the most to treat, therefore profit driven medical care doesn't want anything to do with them.

I wouldn't necessarily say they'd run for the hills. They will be happy to take your money and then refuse to treat and/or pay out for anything they can tenuously link to a pre-existing condition.
And you can probably forget it if you've got a family history of anything nasty as well.

Quite a few of our patients have private medical insurance. They will openly ask about using it if you are thinking of referring for scans or specialist opinion. However, quite a few have had to stop paying premiums because the cost is too high. The more problems you have, the higher the premiums. Even if you can afford the premiums, there's offen a limit on the number of consultations/investigations a year, and sometimes they restrict which specialist you see or which private hospital you go to.

As pointed out, cost goes up if you've used it so in effect you're having to pay extra premiums becauss NHS wants you to go down the private route.

I have private insurance from my workplace (totally unlimited in cost with cosmetic procedures being the only exclusion) but when I asked about getting my cheliectomy done privately I was told by the consultant it wouldn't be any quicker than the NHS as it would be him doing the procedure anyway!!
But the reality is we have a 2 speed system in medical care as those with money generally can get elective care done faster since the creation of the NHS (and before).

I see once again private enterprise has proved more efficient and cost effective than the public sector.

No, wait, it's the other thing...

It’s Capita. What do you expect?

Crapita have caused huge problems in some areas of primary care:

• GP trainees whose applications haven't been processed which means they can't start seeing patients. This could actually delay training and means the trainees would have a longer training period. They could (and should) sue.
• no payments or delays in payments to the surgeries who have GP trainees (they're paid for by NHS workforce) so practices having to pay out of their own pocket
• delays in getting patients new NHS numbers (eg someone who has moved here from abroad) so patients can't access the NHS
• patients who have moved surgeries and the notes haven't been processed and sent across by Crapita which means often you have no medical history with respect to the patient.
• patients being removed from GP lists (there's a list cleansing exercise to remove "ghost patients")
• delays in delivering medical supplies