The Westgate position regarding patient requests for investigations after seeing a private clinician
If a patient has chosen to pay for private healthcare, they are responsible for paying for all costs, including blood test and investigations. The private provider is responsible for managing every aspect of their healthcare for that issue (unless the patient chooses to transfer back to the NHS at a later date to continue treatment).
Private providers should not be asking GPs to arrange any tests that they deem necessary, and intend to use, to make a diagnosis and recommend a course of treatment with.
It is the private provider’s responsibility to arrange tests for patients whose care they are managing, and the patient’s responsibility to pay for them.
The Westgate position regarding patient requests for investigations after seeing an NHS clinician
The practice is not able to undertake blood test/investigations advised by an NHS clinician from a local hospital. Local is defined as within the Staffordshire and Stoke ICB and a hospital in the West Midlands. The main reasons for this are available capacity and responsibility of the test lies with the clinician requesting the test. Further reason is that clinics/hospitals have funding provided to undertake necessary tests/investigations.