Practice Plus- Emersons Green

Today was my visit to determine whether or not I was ready for a knee replacement operation (NHS). All the staff I encountered, starting at reception, were warm and friendly, as was the atmosphere in the very clean and modern building. The consultant was excellent. There was no sense of rush, and everything was explained clearly. I am to proceed with the op and I look forward to it with confidence.

I can not recommend this place enough as soon as I walked in I was greeted with a smile, throughout my dental precidure I was made to feel comfortable and relaxed by such a lovely team.

Don’t waste your time very expensive go to the NHS it’s free after all

Dreadful experience. I booked a consultation for gynae surgery and that process went smoothly. Sadly, it was downhill from there. THE CONSULTATION: Leading up to the appointment, I had letters stating the appointment would take half a day and include clinical tests. It took 20 minutes and I had no tests. The surgeon stated he'd seen my medical records, but couldn't convincingly answer the majority of my questions and made some comments which contradicted NICE guidelines. For example: - He said that fibroids do not cause a swollen belly but that is a core feature of fibroids, especially with large or multiple fibroids. - He said there was no guarantee of my symptoms improving because the gynae organ system is complicated and my symptoms may have unknown causes. While there is some truth in that, a lot of the mystery could be solved with an MRI and rigorous preoperative assessments to evaluate the exact nature and extent of the disease. I would expect that as a bare minimum before undergoing major surgery and forking out £6500. - When I asked what the outcome of his surgeries was, if they were successful, he asked me what I meant by that. I was taken aback but asked if his patients had improved quality of life after his surgeries which he refused to answer. I asked if he had statistics for patient outcomes and he declined to respond. - He did not explain the risks of the surgery. - He did not explain the full range of options to treat the illness. There are multiple approaches to treatment. He did state that he could perform an open myomectomy but a laparoscopy would require outsourcing. - He said it would take 6 weeks to recover, but my understanding is that an open myomectomy with C section can take months, even years, to recover from. - He said he only does maybe 3 myomectomies a year and does not offer laparoscopy. This made me doubt his competence in dealing with my illness and, combined with his refusal to share statistics or outcomes of his surgeries, made me uneasy. ADMIN & BUSINESS: - Upon arrival at reception, I was handed a pager by the unsmiling receptionist and told it would beep when it was time for my appointment. When it started alarming, the receptionist was speaking to another patient at the desk. I stood there waiting for some time with the pager loudly alarming to ask where I needed to go. It was bizarre. - After the consultation, the nurse/HCA lead me back to reception and looked for the team who manage bookings and payments, but they could not be found. I was advised to go home and ring later. - I rang on the (2 hour) drive home but the team could not be reached. A kind and apologetic secretary tried to help but advised to ring back the next day. - It took weeks of back and forth to make any contact with the appointments team, by which point, I was so disillusioned with the hospital and experience that I was completely turned off and had zero intention of paying these people to cut open my body. - The hospital then rang me nearly daily for months, always while I was in work, presumably to book an appointment, I have no idea. It was intrusive. - I submitted a complaint about the disorganisation and clinical practice. So in a nutshell, I paid hundreds of pounds for a 20 minute chat with a dubious surgeon, took a whole day of work off to drive there and back, had no tests, and then was harassed for months on end with daily calls. Please, if you are reading this, avoid.

No 9 tooth extraction, brilliant efficient painless treatment and pain or discomfort the day after, big thanks to practice plus