A cautionary tale.

Increasingly people are turning to private healthcare to get fixed the things that NHS is not fixing. The benign but horrible conditions which are affecting so many, and which affect mental health, quality of life, social and family values and work. It’s very real and everywhere.

You’d think by now I would know how this works. I don’t.

Way back in 2024 Mr Orthodontist admitted defeat. His attempts to relieve all the jaw issues conservatively for over 2 years had failed. He called in Mr MaxFax Surgeon. The latter agreed it was bad , urgent and NHS assured due to the severity. The operation would be scheduled ‘soon’.

This was followed by pre-assessment clinics with consultant anaesthetists…..

….properly carrying out critical tests, contacting other hospitals under whom I am, and generally being brilliantly careful that the ‘High Risk on account of asthma’ patient I am and would be suitable for surgery. That was all promising, and reassuringly, I was declared fit. Thank you, swimming, boxercise, and Pilates. Whoop.

Fast forward to July 2025 another pre assessment and still no operation date.

You may remember I asked BUPA; to my surprise, they agreed to cover the whole operation. I spoke to Mr Orthodontist, I spoke to my original lovely dentist, I spoke to the referring Surgeon, MaxFax…they all agreed. Go private.

On further enquiry it seems Mr MaxFax is not BUPA assured. But his colleague is.

The plan emerged. Both surgeons would operate. BUPA would cover Mr MaxFax 2 fees, hospital fees, anaesthetists fees and all other hospital stuff and follow ups.

As for Mr MaxFax 1 who is the only surgeon able to do this operation he would bill separately. Hewould be in charge of the whole operation. MaxFax 2 gets to be assistant.

From July onwards, I requested quotes. I spoke to the NHS waiting list people. They recommended I go private. no estimates were forthcoming.

The first quote I got was verbally, in my car, fortunately Liz was with me to bear witness. £15000. We both hoped that there was an extra 0 in there by mistake. That was 10 days pre-surgery.

Three days before surgery, my request for confirmation came through by email

£15000. No detail.

What would you do? Cancel ?go back on NHS waiting list ?or go ahead?

I went ahead on the basis that I really needed something to happen.

4 days after surgery with a face like Mike Tysons’ after a big bash fight, and not exactly feeling too good, I got an email requesting payment of an invoice for…

£15000 the invoice was headed up by Mr Max Fax 2 ( ie the BUPA one).

Daniel wrote to them. Basically saying. Where was the detail . Why was it £15000. Why was it Mr MaxFax 2 etc.

Sunday ie Week 3 after surgery, a vitriolic email arrived addressed to me:

 Ihave spoken to Mr MaxFax 1 and 2, who are both very disappointed the invoice has not been settled and you decided to query it once the operation had taken place, this really is not an acceptable practice  especially after the excellent outcome.

AgainMr MaxFax 2 will be paid via insurance.  He has had to apply for an upgrade due to the severity and longevity of the procedure and he in turn has to pay an assistant’s fee from his fee.  He also had to cancel one of his own patients last minute due to the length of the operation for yourself.

MrMaxFax fee is £15,000 and this still stands, there is no reduction this is what he quoted.

Your operation was 6 hours long, very very high risk and you had trimax surgery all under Mr Maxfx 1specialist care and two assistants including MxFx2.

Previous to this there were hours of digital planning not invoiced for by MFx 1 or 2. .

You also have had an excellent result from this procedure under their care.

His fee was advised to you and agreed.  He finds it very frustrating that you are querying his fee after the operation and asks that you kindly pay this invoice.  

I blahhhblaahhhhh blahhh signed by a secretary with a name but no surname.

To add insult to injury..the invoice has incomplete details about the hospital name and bank details. My bank has rejected it as ‘spam’.

I am not in a position to know if this result will be as excellent as the letter suggests. Indeed I have not seen Mr Max Fax 1 again. I did briefly see Mr Max Fax 2 who cheerily announced they had been queried about high risk operations. The high risk I thought was the asthma thing which had been fully investigated by the anaesthetic team in conjunction with BARTs Hospital who look after me. My face is swollen numb and I can only sip and dribble soup and smoothies. Which they had of course warned me. Which must have been on the consent form wherever the hell that is.

I am of course sorry some poor patient got cancelled but actually this had all been planned for. That patient should not have been scheduled. Poor person.

Look, I am sure it’s all going to be ok and in a sense I am relieved to have got to the 3 week mark. The first days at home were horrendous, not least because the hospital had failed to provide the right sort of painkillers etc for someone who could hardly swallow let alone chew!

This is highly unprofessional . Totally lacking in due care and attention. Actually unkind and with no sensitivity.

I am too scared to fight it out. I know this one. When it all goes wrong and you need them, you really don’t want to be in dispute.

Just a word of warning, take care, insist on proper documentation and maybe I should have tried elsewhere. I do not know.

Someone in all this is taking the proverbial…piss

Talking of which ….needantibiotics for uti, need culture, need Jerome.

Dipstick appointment has been moved cancelled and rescheduled so let’s not worry about that one.

Meanwhile weirdly, a scheduled nephrology appointment and clinic letter have been deleted from the infamous ERIC hospital paperless system, his requested blood results are there, all say ‘ABNORMAL’ but with no follow up do we just give up?

Hoping none of this happens to any of you.

I am not worried about posting this. I do not think they will ever read it. Too busy counting their bank accounts.

As for the money. My thanks go to mum and dad, RIP.