Patients seeking out of hours care on the NHS are now more likely to be seen by a lower qualified member of staff in some Trusts across the country. An investigation carried out by ‘The Daily Mail’ found that more nurses were working overnight than doctors in four NHS Trusts said to because they are cheaper to employ. In one area, one doctor was responsible for looking after around 330,000 patients. Out of hours care has been troublesome for the NHS, particularly since the reform brought about by the Labour Party in 2004. GPs were given the option as to whether they would rather provide care at evenings or weekends or take a £6,000 pay cut. The vast majority chose the latter and the service has been heavily criticised since because of the hiring of many doctors from overseas who aren’t familiar with the patients. Following the high profile case where one patient died in the care of an out of hours GP, many people may have been tempted to get a quote for private medical insurance to give themselves extra peace of mind.

Funding for out of hours services was also cut by more than twenty percent of NHS Trusts at the beginning of April this year. This could be a further worry to some patients who are already concerned that the level of care at evenings and weekends is stretched, as shown by these latest figures about overnight staffing. Private medical insurance could become a more attractive alternative by providing affordable access to private facilities where budgets and funding are less of a restriction on services. The NHS has defended their nurses, stating they can prescribe more drugs than previously and are trained to a high standard but a huge variation between Trust’s spending on out of hours provision could still mean people would like to guarantee their level of care with