Imperial College Healthcare Private Care - London

Matt D.

Recently had a brief stay at the Lindo Wing and found the staff there were - without exception - extremely pleasant and attentive. Surgical needs necessitated an overnight stay and, from admission, my interactions with the theatre team, post-op & through to discharge, the experience was made to be as positive as it could be. The rooms & facilities were also spotless.

Elena F.

After having been deprived of bottled water and told to drink out of tap following my surgery at the Imperial Private Health London, after having been told that my dinner had to be discarded as there was nobody to serve it to me, I have today ( over three years after my surgery) received a threatening demand for immediate paymnet. The letter was called Final Letter despite being the very first.

I have had a terrible stay at the hospital where I was nil by mouth for 8hrs longer than I had to be due to the misinformation I have received from the staff. I was not provided with any food or drink at over £1750 per night. My recovery was put in danger by the nurse who refused bottled water to me and I was too nervous to drink London tap water.

The worst hospital experience I have ever had!

M. A. S.

I was a midwife led private patient at the Stanley Clayton Ward, which is part of Imperial Private Healthcare.

Before deciding to book, I looked for reviews online but couldn't find many at all. Here is my detailed review of the antenatal and labour care - hope it helps someone make a decision!

1/ Staff at the ward: The staff at the ward were generally great and helpful. The private midwives are excellent and do really care.

2/ Facilities: The room at the ward itself was ok. Clean, comfortable enough, albeit not overly modern. After the birth, they provide you with nappies, towels, sanitary pads, and Elemis toiletries. The food was also great.

3/ Labour and postnatal: I have mixed feelings about my labour. Having given birth very quickly at 2 AM in the morning, the private midwife on-call had not arrived. There was a standby midwife, who was not one of the private midwives, and was obviously not expecting to be the one delivering me.

I ended up giving birth in one of the rooms at the ward with the standby midwife, while my husband was instructed to pull the emergency switch in the room, but nobody from the delivery suite came... Everyone panicked. Thankfully things all turned out ok, but I shudder to think what could have happened if it was not.

Post-birth, and after the private midwife arrived, everything was smoother. I felt well taken care of and everything was explained well to me. The stay post-birth is the best part of the package.

4/ Antenatal - Continuity of Care: For the antenatal care, you will meet one of the 4 private midwives. But, you might not always meet the same midwife and might have to update the midwife you see yourself.

There is also a caveat. If there are minor complications to your pregnancy (such as gestational diabetes), you will need NHS care. Your USG scans are also all done with the NHS. At times, I was even wondering whether it was worth paying for the private service when I had to use the NHS often any way.

5/ Administrative team: This is the weakest part of Imperial Private Healthcare. From the beginning, it was difficult for me to sign up for the private birth package. Nobody seemed to be available to answer questions promptly. I even had to chase them up to pay. It would take a few days at a time for the admin team to reply to emails.

Since nobody actually sits down with you to explain transparently what is and is not included in the package, this is where it gets tricky. For example, we were under the impression that birth in the NHS delivery suite was included in the package and we would only pay for the Stanley Clayton rooms after birth. Turns out this wasn't the case, and we were charged from the moment we came in to the hospital with contractions. So if you have a long or difficult birth that lasts for more than one night, you will get charged an extra £900 per additional night.

Again, the admin team are slow to respond to any queries, except the billing team, of course.

In all, would I recommend Stanley Clayton? To be honest, I am not sure. I would caveat it by saying that their post-labour care is good and the private midwives are great, but they do have major shortcomings that they desperately need to improve. I would also consider other options, like private midwives (for example, Sage Femme in North London), which I only found out about after birth.

Magdalena M.

Private care it might be but you will be treated just like any NHS hospital - unfriendly, unhelpful and totally cold receptionists (apart from one guy-hat off for being realy welcoming), unfriendly opening hours, emergency care during treatment is laughable (on call doc didn't even take my details but just send me to A&E to sit there for 4 hours - had more care there than in the "Private clinic"). Avoid at all cost. Lots of hidden fees too like Private prescriptions will ruin your budget. Total scam.

Adnan K.

The worst private hospital in the country . avoid them at all cost !
They hound you for money and send bailiffs to your doors . They threatened to cancel appointment if I don’t pay them upfront . They are running a scam and it should be avoided at all costs !!

I found them impossible to deal with and when you make a complaint they give you standard nonsense responses.
I made the worst mistake of my life by choosing them as my healthcare provider never ever again .

Ilona R.

The worst nightmare for me - is to give blood! In the last 6 months I've had to do these at least 5 times. All of the tests was done privately in Harley Street, apart from the very last one - Lindo Wing, St Mary's!!!! You guys, I don't know what to say! It's been done by the lady who sat at the reception (apparently she also is a nurse?). Blood wasn't coming out of me (it did happened in the past) and when I was about to faint, receptionist/nurse got so scared and didn't knew what to do!
Dear nurse, first of all you must make us feel relaxed (talk to us during whole time! About ANYTHING!).
Second of all if we still can't handle it and do faint you MUST KNOW what to do! Offer a glass of water, open the window, put us down and ask to raise legs up, or ask us to lean forwards and put the head down!
Don't just stand there OR tell me "let's try another arm" while I am fainting!
SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!
It was my worst experience in many years!

Ria T.

Went this morning and received wonderful service. Receptionist was welcoming and the nurse who took my blood was lovely. Was taken well care of from the moment I arrived until I left. Had numerous procedures booked in already since I visited this morning. So quick! Thank you.

Mike F.

Terrible experience where very sensitive samples were sent to the wrong lab for (very expensive) testing. It took a lot of effort at a very stressful time for us to resolve the issue and Imperial have not offered any compensation for the distress they caused, despite us taking the time to make a formal complaint to them.