bawdy-nan, you clearly know a lot about this so maybe you can help me with my 'prejudice' but when I've had private health (I worked in spain for a year so my employmee covered my family) my experience was far better - admittedly slightly based on the cosmetic facts that appointments were easy to make, happened on time and facilities etc seemed cleaner brightr etc rather than any demonstartable clincal competence (which thankfully wasn't needed) however, to slightly hypocritically go back to my personal experience, anectodotally my health concerns were dealt with thoroughly too (after all you are paying for it directly) whereas on a standard GP visit it feels like they've got 5 mins to deal with you to keep on schedule (which is annoying as you are paying for it indirectly). Anyway, it 'feels' to me that the system is basically broken (and will get worse given demographics, increased demand and increase sophistication of treatment) and the current use of private agencies is a political compromise, a sticking plaster solution when root and branch reform is needed.