MORE than half of the country's hospital consultants have turned to private medical treatment instead of using the National Health Service.
A survey commissioned by Bupa, the health insurer, found that 55% of senior doctors pay medical insurance, despite the reduction in waiting times for operations on the NHS.
The Patients Association, a pressure group, criticised specialists for spurning the NHS when most patients cannot afford private care.
Katherine Murphy, communications director, said: "Those who work in the NHS at the highest level should have enough confidence in the system to use it themselves." Consultants earn, on average, £110,000 from their NHS work.
Dr Jacky Davis, a consultant radiologist in London and a founding member of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, believes doctors are deserting the NHS because they are no longer guaranteed special treatment.
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"Until recently, doctors could go to any of their colleagues for treatment for themselves or their family and that was accepted as one of the perks of working in the NHS. Now there is less leeway for doctors to treat each other," said Davis.
Bupa surveyed 500 consultants, more than 90% of whom work in the NHS. All the consultants questioned carry out some private practice.
Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald, medical director of Bupa, said there was a gulf in the differing expectations of private medicine and the NHS. "The NHS target of having to wait no longer than 18 weeks by December 2008 is ambitious but our members would still see that as a very long time to wait," she said.
As well as having shorter waiting times, private hospitals advertise their lower rates of MRSA - the so-called superbug. About 6m adults and children in Britain, one-tenth of the population, are covered by private medical insurance.
Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the British Medical Association consultants committee, defended doctors' preference for private treatment.
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"What consultants do with their own healthcare is very much a personal matter," said Fielden. "Consultants will try to minimise the time they are away from work in order to maximise their ability to care for patients."
He also maintains that consultants might switch from the NHS to avoid being treated by colleagues or recognised by their own patients. He claimed that if the NHS could guarantee privacy by offering more single rooms, doctors would feel less need to go private.
"This certainly isn't a reflection of the consultants' faith in the NHS," he added.