Priory Hayes Grove: Alcohol rehab & drug detox in Kent - Bromley

Anne L.

I really like my Doctor and paying to go private was totally worth it. But, the aftercare is not great. Trying to sort out medication is a nightmare and it really shouldn't be so difficult. If Doctors aren't available, you can't leave patients without medication that is helping them. It's the same for physically or mentally ill patients. It's not ethical. You need to have some kind of plan in place if doctors aren't available.

Update - Advocating for my health and my partner's is hard. And to have doctors make you feel like you are a nuisance for asking for better communication and to get passive aggressive sarcastic replies that still don't clarify things, has really upset me. I wanted to get ongoing treatment and diagnostic tests and I can't go this place because the experience has just been awful, but it's also put me off seeking help elsewhere.

dyko96

Just finished my 28 days with the ATP programme, lovely staff on the ward & amazing ATP team. A lot of support & guidance throughout my stay. 10/10 would recommend to anyone in doubt it's the hardest but best thing I have done with my life! Amazing support from my peer group 🙂 completely judgement free zone.

Jack S.

Was an inpatient at the priory for 4 weeks. My experience was extremely positive. All staff are very friendly, caring and just want to help. The hospital is clean the rooms are comfy. The Therapists are all incredibly experienced and just approach you with such understanding. Really can not understate how much going to the Priory saved and changed my life. I continue to go once a week for an hourly therapy which again is well structured and thought out. Really amazing people and service.

Allan M. S.

I just completed the 28 day Addiction Treatment Programme at The Priory. Although it's early days, this has felt like a life changing experience. With the right work from me I feel more confident about a future free from addiction. The quality of the staff and the care I received was exceptional.

Frankie H.

I would not recommend the alcohol addition program at this hospital. We paid privately for my other half to do the 28 days. By the second week once the detox was completed the real problems began. The hospital's main website boasts they're “tailored to individuals needs” and provide “one to one regular sessions” which are both false, amongst other claims.

When I phoned and spoke to members of the hospital team to voice my concerns I was shut down every time, even when I suggested he had been put on the wrong program for what he needed. They repeatedly refused to help, and would not address the underlying traumas which are the route cause of his addiction. This was incredibly frustrating as we were assured by the team we spoke to before booking that this would be the right program and hospital for him to receive this help.

I was spoken to very poorly by one of the doctors, not listened too, and felt the way they approached my concerns as inappropriate and defensive. I had to deal with multiple therapists, one who listed his own experiences of when he was an addict, which I found inappropriate and wouldn't accept that every experience would not be the same as his.

Part of the 12 step program is praying to god or a higher power to ask for the strength to beat the addiction, which is fine unless you do not believe in either of these two things, and no amount of praying is going to deal with any individual's root cause.

During his stay I was taking my other half to get food each week, as not only did he express how small and poor quality the food was but also other patients staying at the hospital voiced this to me. The courtyard area, was regularly littered with rubbish and cigarette ends, it wasn’t a nice environment to sit in with children for visits.

Overall I believe that the website description is wholly inaccurate, and from the conversations we had prior to booking, and our experience of the hospital is that the alcohol addiction program/therapy is being completely mis sold.

Three months down the line, we are now back exploring what help is out there for my other half, after being let down so badly by this hospital and paying a huge amount of our savings in the process.

Kelly D.

I attended the 28 day in-patient ATP program, which was covered by my insurance and I would not recommend it to a friend. The value isn't there even for what was essentially "free" for myself. I felt awful for those in the program who were paying out of pocket. Buyer be ware!

Gone is the famed Priory of old - the group seems to have fallen on hard times with the facilities being very aged (I wouldn't stay at an Airbnb in this condition) and the majority of nursing staff were from a temp agency, who are trying to learn on the job - leading to a disorganized environment and patients having to explain to staff how basic things worked. Many examples to choose from, but the more traumatizing examples were when we lost hot water for 5 days during my stay, meaning no hot showers. I got sick during the end of my stay and was confined to my room, for fear of Covid, even though I tested negative for multiple days, which resulted in me being completely isolated and waiting hours for nursing staff to bring me basic things like drinks/food or medicine for four days.

The program is tailored to support the 12 step AA fellowship, with daily diary reading and group shares, coverage of AA material and basic behaviour therapy throughout the day, then going out in the evenings to AA meetings. The councillors were a mixed bag, some good - with others shockingly ill-equipped for treating patients with addictions beyond alcohol, which led to one of my fellow ATP members leaving in disgust after two weeks.

After completing the program, there were various upsells to my insurance that the priory tried to sell me on, including 1-1 counselling. I declined, but did attend the free year long aftercare program, which is at 5pm on Thursdays. It's essentially going around the room on a zoom call asking everyone how they're doing. I got very little value from it and many people were not engaged. Feedback from the group to find another time that didn't conflict with so many people's work schedules was ignored. After three months, I was removed from the aftercare program for missing some sessions due to work conflicts, which seems common - with counselors blaming the aftercare's high drop out rate on patient's lack of commitment vs the priory's inflexibility to have a flexible schedule.

If you're suffering from alcohol addiction, you have an extremely high level of patience, don't mind a lot of bureaucracy and general disorder, and you have your insurance pay for it - doing at 28 day in patient program might do you some good, but definitely don't pay for it out of pocket! If you do go, really lower your expectations - most patients routinely complained that they expected better and no celebrity would dare set foot in this place. I shared all this feedback on my outpatient survey with no response, I also shared feedback when I was kicked out of the aftercare program, so I don't believe they were open to improving - despite the stock answer on Google to other bad reviews.

It's a shame, because this was billed as the best, but in my experience, that expectation fell very short of reality.

Fiona C.

From the first contact with the Admissions team to the moment I left, I felt cared for. The compassion, support, friendliness and positivity of every member of staff was truly inspiring to me. I was well fed, educated, exercised and relaxed into a state of contentment I've not felt in a very long time. Of course there were ups and downs during my 4 week stay, but I found if I asked for help, there were people ready to listen and take action. If you're willing to put in the work and foster a caring environment with your fellow patients, there is a high chance that you will leave in a better state that the one you went in. Also, you can expect to gain 10lbs and eat like a king!

Siobhán E. T.

Most of the staff, across all depts, are lovely - friendly, caring, professional, knowledgeable, hard working. There are a (just) a few exceptions throughout that unfortuantely sully the whole.

Food tasty, rooms comfortable, groups well planned. Food service slow, refurbishments causing problems (hot/cold showers), inconsistent cleaning and no evening plans do detract from the Wellness angle.

Definitely research who will be your Consultant and Support Worker, be prepared to be stressed by silly admin rules, and to need to put in what you want to get out. Being here alone is not the answer, you don't leave cured but hopefully you leave able to learn new ways of coping.