UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi all,

I am scheduled for a cornea graft on one eye and am trying to assess the reasonability of the shortfall between what my Private Medical Insurance is willing to cover and the private surgeon's fees I have been quoted.

Could anyone advise an approximate/range of fees for a partial or full cornea graft ( lamellar graft and the perforating graft)

Thanks,
C

Crwycross

welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I can't answer your question, but I wonder why you are thinking of having your graft done privately and not on the NHS?

Maybe somebody will be along with the information you are looking for.

All the best.

Andrew

Hi C,

I had a cornea graft last year on the NHS but I understand that the "Going rate" as a private patient for a PK in London's West End is about 5,000.00 GBP upwards which normally includes a number of follow up visits (around 4).At least, that is what I was quoted.

I don't intend to scare you but if you need to buy the normal steriod drops and/or Pressure drops privately the bill can soon mount up. For example, I am still on presvervative free steriods and my GP has informed me that they are about 40.00GBP a bottle.Not sure if she means cost price or selling price. I use 4 a month so the expense soon adds up to 160.00 GBP over 4 weeks if I had to pay myself.Having said that I dont know whether your GP can prescribe these on the NHS after a private surgery.If he/she can, then it is a result =))

However going private does have advantages but other people are more qualified than me to give you advice on this topic.

They should be along shortly !

Liam

I would of thought the main advantage of going private is having the surgery at a time to suit you, and in the next month or so if required, rather than the 18month plus wait suggested on the NHS?

Oh. My own experience was that when I agreed, each time, to a graft the surgoen asked if I had my diary so that we could schedule surgery for mutually convenient time. Yes, there was a bit of a wait: eight weeks or so both times but that was asuch to do with my commitments as anything.

I even know of a student whose NHS graft was arranged to fit in with his exams.

Is this a Scottish thing? There was certainly nothing like an 18 month wait.

Andrew

when I was advised to have a graft back in March I was advised I would have at least an 18 month wait. Apparantly this is due to a shortage of graft material.

If there is a shortage of donor corneas it would be an absolute scandal for people who can afford private treatment to be able to get access to material ahead of NHS patients.

I am even now composing in my head the letter to my MP, MSP and the Secretary of State for Health. I would even write to the Press in the confident expectation that some investigative journalist would catch the whiff of a scandal.

Andrew

Andrew - before that letter gets transferred from your head to paper, donor material for private operations doesn't come from the NHS corneal banks. As you say, that would be unfair. It has to come from other sources - my understanding is that it's usually imported from the States (and before you ask me, I don't know why the States has a surplus of donor corneas when they seem to be scarce in the UK)!
Anne

is it not because in the US bodies are available for donation UNLESS you opt out rather than the ohter way round as it is here. I'm sure I've read somewhere that they have a huge surplus of corneas in the US and they are readily sold.

I'm not sure that's right. Of course there are several jurisdictions in the US and it may be that some of them have an opt-out scheme for donation.

It may be that the US has a surplus because of the way in which health care is funded over there. Not all health insurers will cover treatment for conditions that existed at the time the policy began. Is it possible that some, many or most people with KC in the United States cannot afford transplant surgery so that there us a surplus of tissue, donated by hard working Americans for sale to wealthy Europeans?

One of life's little mysteries.

Andrew