If you go into a private hospital the doctor on duty is likely to be an agency doctor from abroad who's moonlighting to earn extra money to support him or herself while serving out their training - which they'll be receiving in the NHS. By the time they come to work in your fancy private hospital they'll have already done a shift in the NHS and they'll already be knackered.

Private hospitals also rely almost entirely on agency or bank nurses. Many of these are part-timers or women who have come back into nursing after raising families and who don't have the up-to-date skills or match-fitness that a professional NHS nurse will have. I went out with one nurse at a prestigious private hospital in London who was an aspiring actress who only nursed in between acting jobs. Mind you, she spent most of her time nursing because she wasn't a very good actress.

Training and development in nursing are geared towards the NHS and career progression for nurses is judged on their record in the NHS - which is why any decent nurse with any sense stays in the NHS.

Surgeons who handle a mix of private and NHS work are obliged under the terms of their NHS contracts to complete their NHS lists before they move on to their private patients - so by the time they do they're knackered as well.

And if anything goes wrong with your treatment at a private hospital all they'll do is send you off to A&E - at the nearest NHS hospital.

Private health insurance? Waste of money.