Private Health Care Service

The private healthcare sector is made up of hospitals and clinics which are run independently of the National Health Service (NHS).

There are lots of reasons for choosing to get treated in a private treatment centre. Some of these reasons may include worries about waiting times, fears over infection rates, as well as simply wanting a second opinion or comfortable surroundings to recover in.

Private healthcare treatment centres can provide you with:

• Quick access to medical treatment.
• Choice of when you would like to be treated.
• Opportunity to choose your consultant or specialist.
• Option to have a treatment which may not be available on the NHS.
• Comfortable and 'home like' surroundings, usually with an ensuite bathroom, meal options and no restrictions on visits so you'll have more personal space.

Although you may find the standard of care and support in the NHS very high, the desire for convenience and comfort may mean that you prefer to use the private sector. Once you have decided to go private, you will need to choose where and when you would like to get treated.

Serving the best treatment in locality

The private health sector is the individuals and organizations that are neither owned nor directly controlled by governments and are involved in provision of health services.

There is increasing recognition of the private health sector within mixed health systems. However, private health sector recognition, scope, and definition are not consistent across health system stakeholders. The private health sector - sometimes referred to as ‘non-state actors’ - includes all actors outside the government. Although this serves to gird the public sector, it does little to communicate what falls on the other side of this delineation.