Unleashed | Going private

I dipped my toe into the world of private medicine a couple of weeks ago, or rather I dipped my abdomen. I had an abdominal hernia and all the medical opinion was that I should have it dealt with surgically which was going to involve a six inch incision through various bits of skin, subcutaneous tissue and muscle, and the insertion of some sort of mesh. The more I read about it the more terrifying the procedure became and while this is something I could have had done on the NHS I dealt with it through private medical insurance. I was interested to compare how the privately funded world of medicine compares to the publicly funded world of lawyers and for that matter how the privately funded medical field compares to the private lawyer.

Unusually, my firm offers something of a 50/50 service in that we offer 50 per cent publicly funded services, in other words legal aid, and 50 per cent private services.

My first impressions of private medicine were that you had a huge amount of choice. I could choose exactly which surgeon I wanted to do the operation, and surprisingly I could also choose my anaesthetist and, while I could not choose my nurses, I could choose exactly where I wanted the operation to take place '“ the level of choice was bewildering. In the legal field customers looking for a legal aid lawyer have very little choice. There are so few firms doing legal aid work now that customers generally have to go to the first firm they can find and while there is a little bit of searching around for the best in the field, even when a firm is located the customer rarely has the choice of the practitioner who will deal with their work on a day-to-day basis as with current rates of pay so low (and unlikely to increase) a great deal of the work is being done by paralegals, trainee solicitors and very newly ?qualified solicitors.

Private clients do have a choice. Quite often there is a beauty parade and private clients will check out their solicitors on a one-to-one basis and our matrimonial department quite often gets interviewed to see whether they suit the prospective client. Yet, it is probably right that there is far less information out there about individual solicitors than there is about individual surgeons who have success rates and really rather a lot of important data out there which the customer can check.

I decided to go with a battle hardened professor who seemed to have every qualification in the book, had written ?most of the books himself and an anaesthetist who seemed to be top of his particular tree and lecturing a large swathe of junior anaesthetists.

As to the surgery itself it was impressive when I entered the hospital how good the front of house facilities were. I was greeted by an extremely friendly receptionist who was doing nothing else but greeting patients. She in turn introduced me to her administration manager, who talked me through the forms that had to be filled in and having completed the paperwork I was introduced to a third person who took me through to my room and showed me how to work the WiFi and television. It was an extremely smooth and proficient front of house which probably knocked spots off what I have to offer. Most small firms of solicitors have quite a busy reception where the receptionist is multi-tasking; taking calls, greeting clients and getting them to fill in paperwork.

The surgery went well and was all over and finished by about 8.30pm that night, and it was extremely nice to see the surgeon pop in to see me at 7.30am the next morning. That was a piece of the customer service I had not been expecting.

After I was discharged I was given a point of contact who explained to me where I would be getting the stitches out and again I had a choice of location, which was nice as nobody wants to travel miles to have stitches out! Lawyers can be a little lax after a case has finished. We do everything possible to win a case, try to choose the best counsel or advocate for the hearing but sometimes when the case is over we lose interest. I was particularly impressed by the after care that the private medical service was providing.

I suspect that we lawyers have something to learn from our medical colleagues. I was certainly impressed by the slick, proficient, customer service orientated systems that were on offer at the hospital.

As you have probably guessed Cosmo was not allowed anywhere near the hospital, the operating theatre or my recovery room. So perhaps our medical friends have something to learn from ?us as well?