And until very recently there was this totally absurd system in place whereby if you had treatment for any condition privately, you were officially not allowed to then get the same condition treated in any way on the NHS (although generally the GPs ignored this) … so if your insurance provider said, ‘We’ll cover this but not this’ you’d have to shell out from your own pocket, potentially thousands of pounds. Sometimes the NHS doesn’t help itself! However, that’s now been resolved and they are allowing you to use both systems if that’s the way it’s panning out.