What Is Expensive Healthcare?

In the UK we are extremely fortunate to have free healthcare through the NHS. It is deeply embedded in UK culture and is a constant talking point for many reasons, both good and bad. 

While the NHS is excellent at lots of things, many which I would use myself, we all know either through experience or evidence that it falls short in some areas. This is where the private sector comes in. When competing with a completely free service we HAVE to be able to offer more in other areas. Mainly this is seen in either quality of care given or speed. 

For example, a hip replacement on the NHS may be free, but you’ll get it in 12 months time and the rehab afterwards will be minimal at best.

On the other hand a private hip replacement will save you the stress of living with a bad hip for a year and the rehab will likely be of a higher standard, but will cost you £12,000-20,000. 

So where do we fit into this?

Keeping the hip as an example, we already have our two extremes, being £0 and £20,000. We can also include hip resurfacing (£10,000) and injections (£1500 x 3 as after 3 you’re not allowed any more, so £4,500) as your common private medical solutions. 

Now looking at your bottom end, we have low frequency/maintenance manual therapy (£40-80 a month for a few months), a short term plan of manual care (£300-500) and over the counter medication such as ibuprofen (19p-£5). 

Then there’s us. Care plans with us usually range from around £1000-4000 depending on what stage we’re starting. 

So are we expensive? Well it depends on what you compare us to.

Are we expensive compared to over the counter medication or short term pain relief plans or the NHS…yes. The key difference is we offer a long term solution to your actual problems vs masking what’s going on and we can start now.

Are we expensive compared to injections…no. AND injections are again only a short term solution at best. 

Are we expensive compared to surgeries…hell no. Forget for a second that surgery will always have huge implications to ability and overall health, the life span of surgeries is maximum 20 years meaning you’ll likely have to go through the ordeal again. 

When looking at expensive vs none expensive it’s important to weigh up all factors. Relatively large investments now can seem a lot smaller when compared to the alternative in 5-10 years time.