Guide
What happens to your NHS place if you go private?
Ask your health board before you commit to anything, and get the answer in writing. That sounds like a dodge, but it is the honest answer — there is no clear published NHS Scotland guidance covering this, and we have looked.
A consultation is not the same as treatment
Paying privately for a scan or a consultant appointment is a different thing from having your operation privately, and they are not necessarily treated the same way. Several people have described paying for diagnostics privately, taking the results back to the NHS, and continuing on the NHS pathway from there.
Whether a private result is accepted, and what happens to your position afterwards, is a matter for your GP and your board.
Aftercare is the cost nobody mentions
The Scottish Government's stated position — set out in relation to treatment bought abroad — is that routine pre- and post-operative care should be part of the package a patient buys privately, and that NHS boards are under no obligation to provide it. Emergency care is always provided, and a GP will use their own clinical judgement if you present with a complication.
Published private prices generally cover the standard follow-up the hospital itself includes. They do not cover whatever happens if something goes wrong months later. It is worth asking the hospital directly what their package covers if a complication arises.
If you find authoritative published guidance on what happens to an NHS waiting list place after private treatment in Scotland, we would genuinely like to see it — this page would be better for it.
Want the figures for your own health board? Compare waits and prices where you live — free, like everything else here. There is also a paid report that assembles all of it for one board and specialty.