Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital 2024-02-26 Person 1 5 0

I initially made a review about care which I found concerning, but asked for it to be removed as I hoped that matters had been resolved. Unfortunately the matter about which I made a negative review in December 2023, resulted in apparent permanent harm, which might have been avoided had there been any competent after care. The only aftercare involved the surgeon who missed obvious venous thromboembolism symptoms at a post-op checkup, despite the appointment going ahead explicitly because of new unexplained swelling through the foot and leg, a couple of weeks post-op. There was no aftercare, no nursing or physio, no appointment made to remove metalwork, and despite concerns about the dressings; when they were removed a month later, there was a big open wound (not infected). Initially the surgeon only explained to partner, not patient, something that apparently went different to the original pre-operative plan, during surgery: and both Spire and the surgeon refused to abide by Duty of Candour despite Spire Cambridge Lea being associated with Care Quality Commission and so expected to abide by those rules/legislation. It would have been kind and easy to put right, after these issues were communicated with Spire’s safeguarding team. But instead there was apparent stone walling, snd the surgeon’s Admin said that we would have to pay for a Consultation in order to access (Duty of Candour around) what went apparently wrong during surgery. I had been on a waiting list for 3 1/2 years at Addenbrookes since a 2020 fracture (confirmed 2021) that had caused a deformity which prevented me from being able to walk - without even an initial consult, despite chasing via PALS and CQC in 2021. The surgeon whom I saw privately at Spire, was employed by Addenbrookes also, and, I took that as an assurance that if he was employee by such a reputable renown NHS hospital, that he would be an excellent surgeon. I am sure that if I had been able to access NHS care in those 4 years, since GP referral, it would have had more wrap-around support in terms of access to checking dressings and following up on NICE Guidelines where VTE symptoms were apparent. I hope that this feedback helps other patients get better care. I believe that sharing my experience can help raise awareness of shortfalls in Spire private sector, to help future patients have better care. Hopefully. (I tried raising informally, but, no one listened, and, initially it was apparently not even documented that I had shared these experiences.. And when I did follow up again; they just wanted an internal Spire complaints process, which I had explicitly stated that I was not interested in pursuing, as a blame-based system wasn’t what I was looking for - I wanted the experiences snd learning opportunities, documented in an audit log, for a learning experience so as to provide better care in future for other private patients).