HOW OWNING A PARK HOME CAN DENY YOU PRIVATE HEALTH CARE

2008 marks 60 years of the National Health Service (NHS). Whatever ones own experience, there may come a time when the inevitable waiting list is too long for comfort - literally, or it may be that you feel the wait is such that your chances of a full recovery will be compromised. Then there are those cases where the NHS are not so keen or willing to carry out a non life threatening procedure when you want it, but which is important to you to either regain or improve your mobility.

Some years ago I had a routine minor operation, after an enforced wait of 12 months. I decided at the outset to see how long it would take if I went private. The answer was, the operation could be carried out next week!!!!!! Who may I ask would be carrying out the operation, none other than the very same surgeon that I have to wait a year for under the National Health system. Now you know the key reason for the long wait.

So what connection is there with the average park home owner? The problem was exposed recently, during a conversation with a fellow park home owner when the subject of his wife's health was mentioned. He made the usual point that "we are all getting older" and that "things go wrong with our bodies". Without going into details regarding her condition it was clear from the level of pain, and subsequently her inability to walk around without great difficulty, was something which she was going to have to bear for a long time under the current NHS scheme.

Making a further point that he had invested most of his money from the sale of their former seaside bungalow to finance the outright purchase of their park home, his enquiries into the possibility of "going private" was ruled out because of the sheer cost, as was a bank loan at his time of life. BUT there was he thought another solution. Now here we come to the importance of considering very carefully, before purchasing a park home, particulary if already suffering from ill health, is NOT to buy a park home at a price that leaves you without adequate funding, should you find the need to take the private health care route. This obviously assumes that you do not have the appropriate health care insurance.

Because in this instance, having seen advertised the many "sell and rent back your home" schemes, (some of which have been shown to be something of a nightmare in themselves anyway),  in this case was correctly told that because the park home was not "property" in the true sense, (it being a mere caravan ie: a chattel), that the scheme cannot apply, hence back to square one. His parting comment was "I wish I'd NEVER bought it now and stuck to bricks and morter" Coincindentally a;most exactly the same warning words uttered by Professor Philip Kenny in a Guardian article a few years ago.

A final fact is that the NHS will continue to be burdened by the growing volume of stress related problems dealt with by GP's in areas dominated by unscrupulous park operators, until such times as legislation structured exclusively for the total protection od Park Home Owners rights is introduced.