\n He said: \u201cI couldn\u2019t afford to wait.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFlying is a huge part of my job, and every flare-up put that at risk.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I didn\u2019t have private cover, but I knew that on the NHS I could choose my hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n “When I heard Practice Plus Group hospital in Birmingham had no waiting list at the time, I got referred there and was seen in days.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n After a consultation, Rich had\u00a0his gallbladder removed within weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: “I genuinely believe if I\u2019d waited locally, I\u2019d have lost my job.\n<\/p>\n
\n “More people need to know you can choose where you\u2019re treated on the NHS – and get seen much faster.”\n<\/p>\n
\n TV Doctor, Dr Hilary Jones, has been speaking about the power of Patient Choice, having just travelled 180 miles for his own surgery.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI\u2019d do it again in a heartbeat for faster, quality care.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Patient Choice gives people real power – they just need to know it\u2019s there.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The NHS App is going to be developed further to make this easier, and you can speak to your GP about your choices.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou can choose to be referred to a private hospital at the outset, or you can switch hospitals like I did if you\u2019re facing delays locally.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s free for the patient and costs the NHS no more than if that same patient had their op at an NHS hospital.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Hillary Jones (Image: Contributed) Jim Easton, chief executive of Practice Plus Group hospitals, which also offer private healthcare, said: “It\u2019s fantastic for patients that in the NHS 10 year plan, the government has renewed its commitment to using capacity in the private sector and to creating a new patient choice charter to ensure the NHS is receptive and reactive to patient preferences.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Both Dr Hilary and Rich found this at our Birmingham hospital which currently can see people in a few short weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We\u2019re proud to have been able to help them and wish them both a speedy and healthy recovery.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHS patient, Rich Walker, 53, a Business Executive from Seer Green, chose to drive 90 minutes to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-303501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114941354552554649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}