HCA offer upgrades for business users

While many hospitals see price as the key to holding the private sector together, HCA hospital group appear to take the opposite view. They have launched a ‘Platinum choice’ product that is designed to demonstrate the higher quality of service available when going private and to offer upgrades to the corporate client.

Platinum choice offers a range of preferential items to business users of HCA Hospitals. These include discounts off non-insured services such as health screening, maternity and cosmetic surgery, as well as complimentary newspapers, fruit and guest meals when attending as a daycase or in-patient. Perhaps the most attractive offering, however - and the most costly - is a personal chauffeur to and from the hospital.

Membership includes a suitably embossed card and also a charge! This will depend on how many people are allowed the use of the chauffeur service, but they quote a maximum of £22 per member per year.

HCA own most of the private hospitals in central London, including the Wellington Hospital and the Harley Street Clinic. They claim that they are not aiming to get more people to use their hospitals, but to raise their profile directly with the business community, rather than depending on BUPA and other insurers for publicity. They feel that by getting closer to their customers they can explain why they believe that HCA hospitals provide better quality patient care than the NHS or other private hospitals. Among other things, they claim superior infection control and heart surgery survival rates.

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