The Healthcare Commission has just released its top list of complaints it has received about the National Health Service and coming top of the compilation was how they deal with complaints itself. Nearly one in five of all the problems they dealt with were to do with handling of patient’s criticisms. Other common grievances for NHS patients were poor communication (12%), standard of treatment (11%), delay or failure to diagnose a condition (9%) and delays in accessing care (8%). A total of 135,000 complaints were made last year of the 380 million procedures carried out.


For those people that are concerned about the level of care they receive of the NHS, private medical insurance provides a good alternative. It offers the peace of mind of a higher quality of facilities and a more personalised service without the pressure to see the high concentration of patients that the NHS has. Delays are not so much of an issue for private medical insurance policy holders because waiting lists are not a problem in private hospitals and they can choose to be seen in a clinic that is in a place suitable to them whether that is nearer to their place of work for example, or nearer to their home. Freedom Healthnet has no hospital lists, unlike other private medical insurance providers meaning that customers have more choice as to where they would like to receive their treatment meaning that it is likely to be much more convenient to them.