Hello Lyn,
Thanks for your response.
I am normally an advocate of NHS, I went down the private route almost by accident, I've been a member of Benenden which fund an initial consultation plus a test or two.
However, once the decision for RP had been taken, I was quite happy to go down the NHS route so I asked the onco about the difference between private and NHS; as either would be carried out at the local NHS Hospital.
His reply was to the effect; "NHS you might have to wait 8 weeks for the operation, I can do it in about 3, secondly, if you go NHS, the operation may not be actually done by me but I may be overseeing a registrar".
Given that info, it wasn't a difficult choice to make, not many of us, I suspect, would knowingly or willingly submit to the operation being carried out by a trainee !
As you indicate, there are downsides in my experience of going private; the lack of documentation- I was amazed at all the detail that were on folk's profiles here, I was having to scour my memory or latterly, get him to repeat the various numbers in order for me to jot them down.
Secondly is the lack of back-up, no one to ring up, like the support team in NHS hospitals.
Thirdly, where Private and NHS have intersected in my treatment, for example with RT, I got the distinct impression that both parties were not singing from the same hymn sheet as one might reasonably expect.
Once I get the scan out of the way, I shall change to NHS- any further treatment is likely to be very expensive.