Spire Cambridge hospital, no icu

[pinkie25]

I recently found out most spire hospitals don’t have icu for after surgery, including the spire Cambridge hospital which I have a booked consultation at. Has anyone had surgery here or knows what happens if anything goes wrong after surgery?

[Scoutybob]

I'd be keen to hear the response to this. I've been recommended to stay on an NHS pathway with a BSGE specialist for my surgery due to the severity and bowel involvement because they want me to be in a facility with critical care. I have looked at private options but they don't seem to have the critical care units and it is a concern x

[pinkie25 in reply to Scoutybob]

In theory if something goes wrong an ambulance should arrive at the private hospital and take you to the nhs hospital but ambulances don’t arrive and a taxi won’t want to take someone really unwell and even if a family member could drive you there, I don’t know if the private hospital would want you to risk leaving the hospital at all without a medical person

[rustydog]

Sadly very few U.K. private hospitals have ICU departments. BBC’s Panorama had a programme on that very subject last night.

Most private hospitals do tend to be quite near to an NHS hospital though so they could get you there quick if needed (hopefully 🤞).

[bluebug]

This comes up every few years on programmes like Panorama.

In short if you are a patient that is considered high risk then you are advised to get your operation done in an NHS hospital. The surgery should be scheduled so that there is at least an HDU bed available if you need it. (I had an day surgery op done for a different condition, and was moved to the start of the list in the morning for this reason.) There are providers e.g. Bupa that has private wings in NHS hospitals but they don't treat all conditions.

In London all the private hospitals are within 5-10 minutes drive of NHS hospitals with ICUs but it doesn't mean if you do get transferred in time there is a ICU bed available at the nearest NHS hospital.

[Lily1986]

I’ve had surgery privately a few times and was assured if anything went wrong they would rush me straight to an NHS hospital by ambulance.

This time the surgeons want to be far more radical with the bowel involvement especially and I’ve been told I have to have it in an NHS hospital for that reason.

Best wishes to you ❤️

[Lily1986 in reply to Lily1986]

Also, following your consultation if the consultant feels an nhs setting for surgery would be more appropriate they may well fast track you into their NHS care…I’ve had this done before and the private consultation most definitely speeds things up a lot.

[Hidden]

You'll be transferred to Addenbrookes I should think x

[Liseann]

No private hospital, unless a part of an NHS Hospital (Northwick Park as an example) has an ICU they don't have A&E either for crash trolleys. If its an emergency or high risk op, your better off in a NHS Hospital. No Consultant would risk their patients life, if they knew they may need emergency help by operating in a Private Hospital. Its not just Spire, its all privare hospitals.

[pinkie25 in reply to Liseann]

But two people at spire Norwich died after surgery when they were high risk patients and they were still operated on at Norwich spire

[HortC11]

I was due to have surgery at the Cambridge Spire & they told me I would be transferred to Addenbrookes if anything happened