The Portland Hospital, part of HCA Healthcare UK — Local services in London

We chose HCA Healthcare for their reputation for excellent medical care, and on that front, they absolutely delivered. The medical staff—from the obstetricians to the midwives—were professional, attentive, and compassionate. The clinical side of our experience gave us confidence and comfort during what is naturally a challenging and emotional time. However, our overall experience was significantly undermined by an appalling level of administrative dysfunction.

Administrative Chaos and Billing Incompetence

From the outset, we were given inconsistent information by various billing team members about what we owed—figures varied wildly, with no one apparently able to agree on the same number. Even something as basic as sending an invoice when requested turned out to be a frustrating ordeal. Invoicing should be a standard, automated part of a private healthcare experience, but instead, it became a prolonged back-and-forth with little clarity and no accountability.

Hidden Fees Despite Package Pricing

One of the main reasons we opted for the maternity package was the promise of predictable, all-inclusive pricing. That turned out to be misleading. Several services and tests we were led to believe were included were later billed separately, with no prior disclosure. It feels like a bait-and-switch—completely unacceptable for any healthcare provider, let alone one that positions itself as a premium option.

Aggressive and Inappropriate Sales Tactics

Perhaps the most shocking part of our stay was the pushy, tone-deaf approach to selling additional services. Just hours after a traumatic birth, while the whole family was finally resting, someone from the billing team barged into the room asking us to sign more contracts—documents we had already signed. It was intrusive, insensitive, and left us feeling more like customers being upsold than new parents being cared for.

As if that wasn’t enough, we were disturbed again that same morning by someone offering a hearing test—an optional extra that, unsurprisingly, failed. Even the midwife told us it was too early and the baby’s ears were likely still full of fluid. Why offer and charge for a test that isn’t going to be accurate?

Final Thoughts

HCA Healthcare needs to urgently address the disconnect between their excellent medical services and the abysmal state of their administrative and billing systems. Until then, I would advise prospective parents to proceed with caution. Expect excellent doctors—but brace yourself for a chaotic and exploitative postnatal experience, where your focus on recovery and bonding is repeatedly disrupted by administrative incompetence and...

I am posting this on 27th Sept….. my son had SDR surgery at The Portland on 14th May. We had the most horrendous experience in the run up to surgery, even down to the pre op assessment. We waited 1.5 hours in reception without anybody noticing that we had been forgotten, when I mentioned it to the staff, they were rude and dismissive. I asked the nurse to hide the needles and blood bottles (as most would for an 8 year old having a blood test) She made no effort to comfort him, distract him, make him feel safe. Whilst the needle was in, she shouted ‘I need another bottle please’ at which point my son fainted and then vomited. Both practitioners watched and let me clear it up whilst my son cried and clung to me. I am a registered staff nurse myself. Never, have I experienced such lack of communication between teams, no initiative, no empathy. I was calling the billing team for 3 weeks prior to his surgery to pay. Nobody was able to give me a figure, and constant promises of calls back never happened. I was assured that because it wasn’t our fault, that surgery would still happen on the 14th May, and not to worry and this would be settled whilst he was in hospital recovering. Then, arriving early morning ready for admission, I was approached by a lady whom proceeded to tell me that we would not be able to go ahead due to monies outstanding. I explained the situation, and she was so rude, dismissive, and would not even make eye contact with us. My son was clearly distressed, and security were told to ‘not let us in the lift’ Eventually, we decided to just make our way to the ward on level 3, which the cashier was not happy about. We were honestly treated like criminals! Unbelievable that this should happen in any hospital, let alone a private one! I could go on with other problems, but to be honest, I find myself frustrated just talking about it! My son has been seeing a play therapist, and has been diagnosed with PTSD from his time at the Portland hospital and the lack of care and communication are mainly to blame. Since we got home, I have called site managers, governance admin etc etc, and I am always promised a call back by the end of the week to discuss the official complaint that I logged during our stay. Still no calls back, still no answers……. I almost find it hard to believe that they are still not bothering to contact me?!

So, from a registered Nurse that has worked and managed medical wards, specialised, and also have my own private aesthetic and dermatology clinic- I STRONGLY advise any parents with children to stay away from the Portland. Quite frankly, you will be cared for better at your local...

Terrible IVF experience at the portland hospital

The consultant we had was extremely rude and unprofessional, and had a severe lack of empathy for a Dr. She was involved in so many different things she had no proper time to dedicate to ivf patients. Her timing was also terrible, always running 30-60 minutes late for every appointment (no apology). For IVF everything is time critical and at a regular IVF clinic the staff are available for contact as soon as a patient is at day 1 of their period, i was not able to contact her after having bleeding for 6 days because she was out of office. She then lied and said she had an out of office on (she did not) so we had no idea where she was and were left in limbo. It is also extremely important to be allowed a safe space to be allowed to ask questions, we did not feel we were given this by her. She did not react well to questions, and the one time I did get emotional (mainly because of how I was being treated) she told me I needed to get help for mental health issues. The receptionist used by the consultant is not contactable by phone, only responds via email, as does the consultant. If you are the kind of patient that needs to be able to contact someone by phone as most people including us are, this is ridiculous. We do however appreciate the tests requested by her and the recommendation for a hysteroscopy, these tests were necessary, but it was not easy getting the full reports from her. We often had to chase up results and were told they had already been sent (we had no record and nothing in our junk mail). We continued our treatment with her as we had already paid over £2000 for the medications (most of which were unnecessary add-ons. We have since moved to a new clinic/consultant and have had much better results so far (day 5 blastocyst) and less a aggressive treatment protocol. We collected 3x more eggs than we did with our cycle with the cycle with her, which says it all. After spending £10k in total we had a terrible experience and the lowest amount of eggs we have ever collected in any cycle. Regular bloods were also not taken during the cycle. We made a complaint to Portland hospital as we need an independent review of our results and reports, via the 3-step process which is a complete shambles of a process (complaint made in February and still no resolution). Please avoid and go to one of the expert IVF clinics like ARGC,...