"Deteriorating standards for NHS patients"

While I have had more positive experiences at the Spire Bushey Hospital in the past, I was really disappointed with my most recent experience as an NHS patient and on this occasion at the Spire Bushey Diagnostics Centre. All contact with the hospital is carried out with the NHS coordinator. However nobody answers the telephone for the NHS team or returns your messages in a timely manner and I only knew about the date and time of a follow up appointment from a text reminder which was sent to me the previous day. No attempt was made to obtain my MRI images from the NHS hospital by the NHS team . The consultant did not arrange for any further investigations for me at the Diagnostics Centre. The consultant also did not arrange for a chaperone to be present in the room at the time he had examined me which clearly violated my dignity as a female patient. There were most staff around than patients at my two appointments and I was almost made to feel like a second class patient because I came to the Spire Bushey as an NHS patient rather than a private one. Thankfully I was simultaneously receiving advice from an NHS hospital on the same health condition under the care of a Neurologist and had found that the NHS hospital fared far better in comparison to the Spire Bushey Hospital. The Spire Healthcare Group has had a profits warnings in recent years and a decline in patient numbers was reported in 2018. Unfortunately I would be highly disinclined to use patient services at the Spire Bushey Hospital in the future as NHS patients do have a great deal of choice under NHS Choose and Book Regulations including the choice of BMI Private Healthcare. My experience has taught me that private healthcare does NOT always serve the patient interest better in comparison to the NHS.