I have family membership. So far this year, my wife has had about £4000 worth of various surgery and is booked in for more this coming Thursday.
I had the MO refer me privately recently as the implications of my symptoms were serious and I wanted a quick resolution. I was assured that I didn't need to bother as, because of the serious nature, I would get seen very quickly as a high priority case. I insisted on the private referral, although the JMO referred me publicly as well. I have seen the private specialist 3 times now, have had a plethora of tests, including an exploratory op. Even on days when I have been in for 5 tests, I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes between tests. In one batch of blood tests, the technician doing the analysis noted from some scan results that I had problems with a totally different organ from the one that he/she was testing the blood for. As a result, he/she ran extra tests and revealed what is probably cancer. I have 2 more operations booked.
I finally received an NHS 'priority' appointment to see a specialist which I have cancelled as it isn't due for another month yet. And that would just be the one where I would have been transferred to another waiting list for a single test with no chance of them spotting the cancer...
Bugger peace of mind - my and my family's treatment is worth more than 1200 beer tokens each year.
A fairly standard op with 2 nights in hospital will set you back more than the £1200 we pay as a family to BUPA. My treatment in the past 2 months runs to £1400 and the ops are going to cost about the same again.
Free prescriptions from the RAF are good though.