If you have consulted with your GP and advised that you wish a private referral, please check with your insurance company that they will authorise this referral (and potential resultant investigations and treatments). You can also make a self-funded private appointment if you are uninsured.

• It is important to remember that a private consultation will not result in further NHS specialist care being received quicker, and any further care or tests advised will need to be funded privately. 

You will then need to contact the relevant private hospital and department and make the private appointment yourself – your GP will have advised you which department/speciality/specialist to contact. 

Once you have made your appointment, please phone the surgery to give us the details; we need: 

• the name of the hospital you plan to attend, 
• the name of the specialist, 
• the contact details for that specialist, 
• the date and time of the appointment and 
• your preferred contact details. 

When making your appointment in the private sector, please remember that you will need to allow our Practice secretarial staff 5-working days’ notice, in order that we can dictate and type your referral letter. There will not be a charge for this letter. 

• You may receive a prescription when you see the consultant privately. If the pharmacy at the hospital is closed, then your private prescription can be taken to any chemist.
• The Practice is not obliged to convert your private prescription to a NHS prescription and will only do so with a letter from the Consultant, which may take several days for the Practice to receive. 
• The Practice reserves the right to change the medication to a suitable alternative, though such a change will only occur after a discussion with the private clinician. 

Any investigations (including blood tests and X-Rays or scans) required as a result of your private consultation, should be conducted privately at the site of consultation. Such investigations will incur costs, for which you will be responsible. 

If the clinician in the private sector requests that your tests are undertaken at the Practice, there will be a charge for those investigations from the relevant Health Board department. Please contact the following departments for estimated costs that will need to be paid before the tests are undertaken: 

• X-Rays, Ultrasound scans, CT scans, MRI scans are undertaken by the Radiology Department (Bronglais General Hospital – 01970 623131) You will be provided with a Radiology request form. 
• Blood tests are processed through Phlebotomy Department again at Bronglais General Hospital. 

You will be provided with authorisation codes for the GP to be able, on your behalf, to access these tests privately (through the labs).