Ramsay Health Care UK Arvostelua 

I had hernia surgery last week.

Very fake and awful hospital. Nursing staff made mistakes, no privacy and backchatting patients in the corridors and staff were rough in patient care.

Also at 9pm they wanted me out despite not being fit enough to leave as they wanted the bed for another patient. No care at all and not considerate to my after care either as they don't see it as their problem.

The consultant was great but that is it really. I also observed how some patients were treated differently depending on colour and type of patient. I wasn't even being offered food for breakfast. Had to ask myself because apparently they didn't know I had stayed the night. I actually didn't want any anyways but it's the fact of the matter wasn't offered.

Never want to use again!!! Way better private hospitals around than this!! Plus when I've been inpatient in NHS, never have I had any issues so goes to show the different priorities these private hospitals have. It's all about the money only and fake and forced care due to gaining money. Had staff rush me off bed just because shift was ending. So awful there, never again will I go there.

I went to New Hall for a straightforward hernia repair. The surgeon failed to do a pre op exam, required by NICE and also the manufacturers of the repair mesh.

During the surgery the surgeon failed to establish the size and location of the hernia and thus failed to choose the correct the mesh for the repair.

The surgery left me with 15cm of good tissue covered by the mesh, this should have been no more than 6 and only achieved 1cm of mesh overlap beyond the defect. The minimum is 3cm. How they could get it wrong at both extremes really does defy belief.

I then had a diagnostic laparoscopy, they confirmed that the mesh had been placed in accordance with its manufacturers instructions, they failed to confirm if the correct mesh had been chosen.

They failed to confirm if 3cm of mesh overlap has been achieved. They failed to confirm why 15cm of good tissue has been covered.

The questions have been repeated on several occasions including a formal complaint. It's now currently with the parliamentary health ombudsman.

The hospital claims to not be hiding anything, but answers reasonable questions with no comment and refuses to disclose laparoscopic images that the claim proves it was a good repairs. These are hardly the actions of the hospital with nothing to hide.

If your having problems with this hospital, please complain as soon as possible, they need to know how bad this hospital really is.

Also be aware that this hospital is deleting negative reviews of their services on some platforms.

Not what private healthcare should be. The secretaries do not help, Consultants book their own schedules and are difficult to get hold of. You have to chase all the departments yourself. Private healthcare team know you're with BUPA but allocates non-fee assured doctors to treat you for procedures. Lack of communication within their own organisation. If you are unwell, please seek another hospital. You'll just be passed around here.

I booked a GP service - a telephone consultation - for £49. To sum up they said go to your doctor within 24 hours for tests. I went to Ramsey Health as I am finding it very hard to get an appointment to see my GP. They suggested going to a walk-in clinic if I can't get a GP appointment within the time frame.

I have suffered at the hands of this company too. Their modus operandi is always the same…they take patients from nhs promising better treatment, deliberately waste time ordering numerous consultations and delays, botch and then throw you back into the nhs waiting list. I’m reading the reviews and so many are the same story. You are a cash cow they treat poorly and discard. They can do this due to an ineffective ombudsman and a deck stacked against their victims. Unless you have 50k to sue them, sadly you are unlikely to get a response. Contact your mp today as they should not be treating nhs patients with standards so low.

I suffered 70% cancellations, unqualified doctors, a botched op that has left me disabled and they exploited me by selling a faulty add on from one of their partners. 3 years later the nhs have had to provide two serious procedures to correct the damage they have done.

Stand strong, we can prevent them from harming others

Following an operation for haemorrhoids last Thursday on 16th January at Buckshaw Hospital. I was assured the treatment procedure was new with fewer issues than the normal practice. Following the procedure, I was sent home and given written instructions by the ward sister in the event of an emergency to go to Euxton Hall Hospital nearby. I was generally fine apart from pain until Sunday early morning when I continued to have renal retention issues. They became severe and I was asked to go to Euxton Hall. There I was attended to and the ward doctor kindly tried two catheters but failed. They then contacted the surgeon who told the doctor to ask me to leave and go to A&E. He said I should have gone to A&E but Buckshaw told me to go to Euxton. The doors were shut on me and I had the grueling task of driving onto Chorley A&E where I was eventually attended to after 3 catheter attempts, one was installed. My bladder was almost full and frankly driving on to the A&E could have had dangerous consequences. On Tuesday I was referred to the Preston Royal Surgery Assessment unit and they attended to my problem and were concerned that the catheter which was inserted was too large and is used only in certain other haemorrhoid cases. It was removed and I was told there may be some damage to the uretha and bladder. Other patients were also attending A&E at same time as myself having had same procedure as myself at same time in same hospital. The attitude of the surgeon was very bad and lack of caring. Now i am doing self care until I get to see a urologist again. Still having issues of pain and retention. Very bad operation.

My husband had a pre-assessment for a small surgical operation on the 11th December 2024 and the nurse who did it was an absolute disgrace. Her attitude was appalling. When he had the procedure, the ward he was on, and the nursing staff, were absolutely brilliant. I have complained about the pre-assessment nurse who should not be a nurse. This is for Springfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

Ramsay have asked for more details. I am the wife of the patient so do not wish to give out his name in public. If they would like to get in touch with me privately, I will give his full name.

Edited 22nd January 2025

Ramsay have not got in touch with me, so they obviously do not care.

Edited 30 January 2025

We've received a letter from Springfield Hospital from the Hospital Director apologising for the nurse in question. It is a very nice letter and the nurse has been told of her behaviour and apparently apologised. To be honest, her apology probably isn't genuine as that would be the way she normally acts, but we appreciate the letter from the Hospital Director.

I had a full right hip replacement, after the surgery my right leg 33mm longer than the left, Thanks the painful walking because of this mistake. I never had a problem with my knee or my ankle, now I have, because my Body can not tolerate this mistake

I visited the orthopaedic surgeon at Ramsey healthcare fulwood,and been back and forth for over a year without any results and after being given 3 operation dates two cancelled due to consultant leave the letter stated. I am in a lot of pain and the longer it’s left the worse it is and seem to be getting further away from getting it sorted no support offered of what can be done in the interim to help. Myself and my partner have both used our holidays to book the 2 dates off and now have wasted the days as work won’t change them am just praying my third date doesn’t get cancelled due to consultant leave !!

2 weeks now since my surgery at The Yorkshire Clinic in Bingley.
Under the care of urology Consultant Mr Alistair Stewart from start to my discharge, everything was absolutely excellent. Pre-op and surgery was as you would expect, very well prepared, highly professional and detailed. Food incredible and always very well looked after by all nurses and catering. Wish the bed, pillows and sheets would have been a little more comfortable but just a bit of feedback.
Very highly recommended.

I had an NHS Operation as a day case patient to remove a large cyst/ganglion from my finger.
A clean hospital which had attentive medical and other staff producing a calm experience.
The room was first class and the procedure went smoothly with a good outcome. Mr.Butt, the consultant and the anaesthetist put me at ease and were highly professional.
Thank you for resolving my problem.

This relates to two operations performed at New Hall Hospital near Salisbury to unsuccessfully repair the same inguinal hernia. It also has wider implications as the second surgery and handling of the formal complaint was performed by Ramsay Healthcare UK's group medical director.

I first visited the hospital in December 2022 for a pre op consultation to repair an inguinal hernia. The consultation lasted only three minutes and the visit didn't register on my Google maps journey that day.

The first minute consisted of the surgeon talking about how many thousands of surgeries he's previously performed and he claimed a 100% success rate.

He then did a 5 second visual exam only confirming the presence of a hernia. He failed to confirm the size or location of the hernia. Under nice clinical guidelines and also the instructions for use issued by Medtronic in relation to the Dextile mesh that was ultimately implanted in my surgery, the size and location must be documented as part of the clinical examination. This information forms part of the surgical plan that any responsible hospital would make as part of obtain informed consent from the patient.

The size and location of the hernia also dictates the surgical approach ie keyhole or open and then that dictates the size and placement of the mesh.

No attempt was made to perform these detailed examinations pre-operativly. No attempt was made to obtain my informed consent at the pre-op, instead the risks were described by the surgeon as things they have to put down on the form and they were of no relevance.

Anyway, moving on to the surgery and with no individual surgical plan in place the proceeded to perform the surgery. The mesh manufacturers instructions for use require a second check of the pre-surgical measurements in surgery. Again these were not performed.

As a result of the lack of diligence it was not noticed that my hernia was out of the usual position as it was caused by direct impact from a bicycle handlebar followed by a sickness bug 27 years later.

The mesh used was way to large and way to rigid for a small hernia in an athletic 37 year old male. The mesh almost completely missed the hernia. For a diligent surgeon, it would have been immediately obvious that this was the wrong choice of prosthetic implant.

The repair was quite obviously wrong by day 19 of the recovery period. Anyway, it took almost a year to be referred back to the hospital for this to be looked at again. On return to the hospital the surgeon pre-emptivly dismissed the issue as a musculoskeletal issue, but procedures required him to get an ultrasound scan done.

The scan was performed which did find the problem area but strangely reported an issue 6-7 cm away from the site of the scan. An ultrasound doesn't have sufficient field of view to accidentally be this inaccurate.

At this point the group medical director took over my care and he performed the diagnostic laparoscopy on me after two telephone consultations and a face to face appointment.

I talked the surgeon through the problems in particular the lack of coverage around the site of the hernia. During the diagnostic laparoscopy all of this was conveniently overlooked and the hernia was presumed to be conventionally located around the entrance to the inguinal canal.

The attitude of the hospital since this point is has become increasingly evasive. They've tried to claim that there's no problem and that the hernia is adequately covered but they have made zero attempt to verify it's size, location or mesh coverage.

I have requested copies of the laparoscopic images but for the last 7 months, they have sent redacted printouts that are so heavily darkened the mesh can't be demonstrated. They claim that this is best they can print however they've had my email address on record for the last two years. There's nothing stopping them from emailing me copies over.

In response to my questions as to why they used such a large heavyweight mesh, they claimed that they use medium weight mesh and have never experienced these problems when using medium weight meshes.

Eventually 2 and half months after making a formal complaint, they changed their stance to no comment.

The hospital feels this is simply a difference of opinions between myself and the surgeons.

Interestingly the group medical director claimed in the complaint response that in relation to my concerns over the shortness of the examinations, the visual examination is secondary to their expertise.

Having read the international hernia surge guidelines, they do not advise that experienced surgeons can substitute expertise for diligence.

I have read other similar reviews to this in relation to other Ramsey UK group hospitals. It's hardly surprising when the group medical director is so overtly complacent.

Went to Winfield Hospital, Gloucester, for routine surgery, similar to that which I had many years ago but which is no longer provided by the NHS, not being an emergency.
I found the organisation to be incompetent from beginning to end. They didn't take the trouble to know anything about my case, or what to do. The operation was cancelled once because they failed to take my blood pressure in the pre-operation assessment. When it went ahead 3 months later, I was discharged the following day and presented with a pile of bandages without any guidance on dressings or aftercare. I requested some antiseptic wipes since the wound was still bleeding, but though I was told I could have some, after several hours waiting none were provided. A week later the wound developed an infection. Luckily I was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and had an emergency operation the following morning. This was followed by a week in hospital and 3 weeks of home visits while the wound healed - all on the NHS of course.
Ramsay Health Care are to be avoided. When they mess up there are never any consequences for them, and in fact I believe them to be a danger to public health. The additional burden this and other private hospitals put on the NHS also really should be investigated.

Having already had one hip joint replaced privately I was a little concerned when I had my other replaced on the NHS via Ramsay Health Care at the Woodlands Hospital.
However, the experience far exceeded that of my previous operation! From the initial consultation to being signed off. The standard of care was awesome, the actual operation was far superior and very much more professional.
The consultant I met with was Mr. Suresh Srinivasan and seriously I don't believe I could have had anyone better!
By comparison to my previous hip replacement, no bruising, last one I was heavily bruised which lasted for weeks. Last hip done has left me with no feeling around the operated area, this one has full feeling. This one, the scar has within a few weeks is looking about the same as the other side which took a couple of years to start to look normal. This one I was walking without support within two days! Also I didn't need any painkillers after around 7 days!
So in conclusion I couldn't recommend Mr. Srinivasan and Ramsay Health Care high enough, awesome service.

I booked a private appt with Mr Jindal, a week ago. I spent most of the next day filling in their forms (including a very laborious date of birth entry!) and the morning of the appointment preparing information to take. I arrived 40 minutes early, so waited outside (Stourside Hospital). I went in, booked in at reception (15 minutes early). 27 minutes after my appointment was due, I was called into a cramped corridor, only to be told that Mr Jindal was on annual leave and would I like to book an appointment in a weeks time. Alternatively, they could TRY to find another ENT Specialist for the following day...but they weren't sure who or whether there would be anyone available. I walked out shell-shocked! What an out-of-this-world experience! This was the PRIVATE health service, wasn't it?????

PLEASE DO NOT GO HERE AS A PRIVATE PATIENT. I went here as a private patient. Initially the dr said he totally understood what was needed. He gave me a quote of £7k surgery was carried out and straight away i noticed a error. He kept denying it saying i needed to heal etc etc. 1 year later i looked worse. So i was told i needed another surgery. He kept saying you cant go anywhere else because you cant afford it. I agreed to have another procedure done by him.Again paid for it, i am worse off. I wish i didnt go here at all i wish someone had told me to avoid this place i thought because it was in uk and not abroad id be better off. Im now in the process of taking legal action. My solicitors have told me it could take a few years and that i cant have corrective surgery to have this resolved til the case has been settled. Ive been to see independant specialists that my solicitors sent me to, who agree that my situation is bad and the so called work that the surgeon has claimed and recorded has NOT BEEN DONE. I cant breathe from one nostril.My face is a mess and im living with it and God knows how long i will have to remain this way. I didnt fo abroad and opted for surgery in the uk and i felt i had a botch job.
I contacted the surgeon and asked if we could resolve it between us as i cant bear staying like this for a few years. He ignored me.

Great experience, had hand surgery performed by Mr. Shafighian, nice man, discharged the same day, great pre-care and after-care on the day, lovely staff, Queenie, Nima, Helen, Lisa the physio and the friendly chap on the desk who welcomed me with a hello followed by my name and a thumbs up as I left for surgery ( sorry no name, young black guy, so polite!) a lovely experience, the people make it, so look after them please. I’d recommend this hospital to anyone. Well done! In the nicest possible sense I hope I won’t be back.

Update August 2025. Still no records and they are claiming no id was provided, despite me chasing many times it took until the past few weeks to say to the ico 'we didn't have id. Having paid around £800 for consultation and mri in October, in August I'm still unaware of content of consultations or share with nhs - now having waited the standard nhs
waiting list

No pre visit info and expected me to have a crystal ball with this information. Possible diagnosis shared with GP (no copy received) and even when the original diagnosis was completely wrong and an urgent cancer referral was needed the consultant stopped making contact.
Ramsay themselves don't answer calls to either the registered office or head office.
The data protection officer is equally impossible to contact and does not reply to emails (the only contact method available)
Patient experience team answer a third of complaint and give no escalation

The reply! Sir, I'm hoping you are aware how hard I have tried to contact you after the CQC gave me your name. Your dpo still has not made contact so I guess we are going to the ico also.

It looks like ramsay are happy for necessary cancer referrals to no happen and you refuse to discuss or do anything

I had a knee replacement on 15/09/2024 following surgery I was left in urine bed sheets for several hours with the excuse they were short staffed. I pressed my buzzer as needed to go to the toilet no one came. I had to wet myself very degrading and my splint sheets and bandages were wet through. There were signs everywhere to press the buzzer to get out of bed I did this and got told off for not getting out of bed. I was in so much pain I was screaming still no one came. I envelope tried to telephone the ward several times from my mobile no answer. I was eventually prescribed additional pain relief from the doctor but the nurse wouldn’t give it to me even though it was on my record signed by the doctor. Then came the physio who gave me a booklet went through it once, walked me in and down the ward and up and down the stairs once and told me I was fit to go home (they appeared too busy getting ready for the next days operations).
Finally I got my follow up appointment which should be after 6 weeks to tell me I’m fit to drive and work etc I received a letter with a telephone consultation for 10th January 2025.
To be honest if you get a chance to have your surgery done somewhere else I would take the opportunity. There was a definite lack of empathy and the care was horrendous I felt like I was at a meat market would not recommend this hospital.

Had an appointment booked to have a consultation with the Renacres Hospital Knee Specialist for Oct 4th as it would be just after I get my benefits and would make it possible for me to get to the appointment, only for the Specialist to Cancel my appointment in favour of a Private Patients Surgery on that day. Not to mention I specifically asked for that date because it would make it financially possible for me to attend, now they expect me to find £60 in taxi fares to get myself there (which they have outright refused to reimburse mind you)

This type of conduct is outright scandalous, the fact that Practitioners are able to Cancel long standing NHS appointments in favour of their paying Private Patients is wrong. Once an appointment is agreed to they should not be able to Cancel.

I suffer with Combined Type ADHD, Social Anxiety and Depression and changes like this right before the expected appointment only send my headspace into a tailspin. Absolutely disappointed with the set up at Renacres and I haven't even been to an appointment yet.