Paying for a single treatment yourself usually runs through two steps: a consultation with a consultant, then a fixed-price package for the treatment itself if you decide to go ahead. The two are normally booked and paid for separately, and you are not committed to the second just because you have paid for the first.

The consultation

The initial consultation is where a consultant assesses your case and tells you whether the treatment you have in mind is suitable, what it would involve, and what it is likely to cost. This is usually a fixed fee in itself, charged whether or not you go on to book treatment. It is worth treating it as a separate decision: you are paying to get a clinical opinion and a price.

The fixed-price package

If you decide to proceed, most providers offer the treatment itself as a package with a single quoted price. A typical package is built to cover a defined set of items, though what is included varies by provider and by treatment, so it is worth checking each point.

• The procedure or treatment itself
• A stated number of follow-up appointments after the treatment
• Care for complications that arise within a stated period, where the provider's terms cover this
• Any tests or scans the provider lists as part of the package

What sits outside the package, such as further consultations beyond the stated follow-up period, or care needed after that period has ended, is set out in the provider's own published terms. Those terms are the document to read before you book.

What this does not cover

None of this is a recommendation of one treatment over another, or of one provider over another. It describes how the self-pay route is generally structured. Whether a particular treatment is right for you is a question for your GP or the consultant you see; the self-pay route sits alongside the NHS route, and choosing between them is yours to make once you have both sets of figures in front of you.

The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) publishes information about private hospitals and the consultants who work in them. It was set up under the Competition and Markets Authority's order on private healthcare, and access to its data is under licence.

What it covers

PHIN's data is about the private hospital and the private consultant. If you are looking at self-pay for a single treatment, this is the register that sits behind the hospital's own website and the consultant's own profile.

How to use it before booking

Before you book a fixed-price package, it is worth checking what a hospital or consultant has published through PHIN alongside whatever the provider itself tells you directly. Treat it as one more thing to check: it tells you what has been published.

Questions on private medical insurance belong on the estate's insurance site once it serves.

Paying for one treatment yourself is a decision about a single procedure. If the question in front of you is more about ongoing cover, protection against future illness or a family policy, that is a different kind of decision, and it belongs on the estate's insurance site once that is live.

Here, the focus stays on the treatment you have in mind now: what a self-pay booking involves, what the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) publishes about the consultants and hospitals offering it, and what to ask a provider before you book.