Guy’s and St Thomas’ Specialist Care is part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (“we” or “us”). Our private patient services are delivered at Evelina London Children’s, Guy’s, Harefield, Royal Brompton and St Thomas’ hospitals, as well as Wimpole Street Consulting Rooms and Diagnostic Centre.

This website is provided as a resource for patients, the public and healthcare professionals. It provides information about our hospitals, staff and services.  We aim for high standards of accessibility – read more on our accessibility page. Our position on various legal issues relating to this site, including cookies, is laid out below.

Disclaimer

Our website is designed to provide information and education about health conditions to healthcare professionals, patients and the public.

We are unable to offer medical advice or professional services through this website – this can only be provided by our specialists. Patients may request a referral by their doctor or self-refer, if this option is available for their treatment.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided on this website is accurate. However, neither our website, our partners, nor the authors or maintenance staff for this website, can accept any responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of inaccuracy, howsoever caused.

The information provided here is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care, does not constitute business, medical or other professional advice, and is subject to change. If you have, or suspect that you may have, a health condition, you are strongly advised to consult your own doctor without delay.

We are not responsible for the content or reliability of the linked websites and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. No guarantee is offered in relation to the availability or operation of linked pages. A link does not imply an endorsement of a site; likewise, not linking to a particular site does not imply lack of endorsement.  Read more about our links policy below.

We cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to this website and accept no responsibility for any damages arising from the loss of use of this information.

Copyright

Content on this website is the copyright of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust unless otherwise stated. Where copyright applies, visitors may download material for private research, study or in-house use only. Visitors must not copy, distribute, or publish any material from this website. Any other use of copyright material requires the formal permission of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.  Please contact us with any requests.

Feedback

You are very welcome to contact us to provide feedback about this website, such as advising us of broken links, out of date or inaccurate information and to make suggestions.

Any feedback to the website will be treated in the strictest confidence.

This privacy statement discloses the privacy practice for our website.

Our use of social media channels

Our private patient service social media channels are managed by our marketing team.

If you follow our social media channels, you can expect to receive messages covering news, events, service updates, official announcements and promotional content about our private patient services. We will also republish information that we feel is appropriate, relevant and interesting.

We reserve all rights to the following social media accounts:

Replies and messages

We welcome feedback from followers and aim to read all messages. However, we will not always be able to reply individually to everyone.

If you send a message to our social media account, this will not be considered as contacting us officially. If you have a formal comment about our services, please contact our team.

Who we follow

We follow individuals and organisations where appropriate and will stop following accounts that we believe are malicious or spam.

If we follow an individual on our social media channels, this does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Availability

We will normally update and monitor our social media accounts only during office hours. We cannot guarantee that all our channels will always be available and cannot accept responsibility if there is a lack of service.

Social media community rules

We are committed to diversity and inclusion at our hospitals to ensure that our private healthcare services are fair, accessible and appropriate for all our patients.

This commitment is reflected in our social media communications and we expect that followers of our social media accounts and/or those commenting on our social media posts to respect that too.

We welcome comments on our social media accounts and posts that are intelligent, constructive, and related to our services.

We encourage everyone interacting on our social media accounts and posts to treat others how they wish to be treated.

We will do our best to help users with any queries within their comments, but to respect user privacy and to prevent personal details being shared publicly, we may ask them to contact us via private or direct message on the social media platform being used. We will also remove or hide comments that identify users offline.

Any comments that do not meet our community rules will be removed or hidden and the user’s comment may be reported to the relevant social media platform for assessment.

The following comments are not permitted on our social media accounts or posts and go against our community rules:

  • abusive language, aggression, discrimination, and bullying (whether that is aimed at other users or our staff and hospitals)
  • distressing content
  • duplicate posts (spam) from the same user or group
  • any comments subject to legal issues, such as those related to slander, contempt of court, defamation or publicising/encouraging/endorsing illegal activity
  • comments containing unverified or false claims about products, health conditions and/or their diagnosis and treatment of health conditions
  • comments with overt political or religious bias intended to incite others
  • aggressive lobbying that disrupts the community for other users
  • the impersonation of brands or other users or featuring licensed or copyright material.

Finally, we retain the right to remove content posted on social media or block users from posting to any of our social media pages for any other reason deemed necessary to create a helpful community.

Terms for contributions on social media

These Terms apply to all ‘Contributions’ made to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Specialist Care and/or our direct and indirect affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively, ‘we’ or ‘us’). A ‘Contribution’ is something you make and submit to us via social media, including:

  • posts from social media accounts
  • videos and clips
  • pictures
  • reviews and ratings
  • questions
  • comments
  • all other ‘user-generated content’ (which means content you make)

Emails, website enquiries and other patient information sent to us are considered private and confidential, and therefore permission will always be sought before publishing their contents.

When do these Terms apply?

You agree to these Terms if you upload a Contribution to one of our social media pages or if you submit a Contribution in response to a request from us.

In addition to these Terms, our terms of use, privacy policy and cookie policy will apply if you visit and/or submit your Contribution to our Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube accounts.

Needless to say, if you don’t agree with anything in these Terms, or wish to keep any content, information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary to you, do not post them to our social media, respond to our requests, or otherwise submit them to us.

What we can do with your Contribution

If your Contribution is selected by us, we may show or use it on our website or social media or in other marketing, advertising or promotions – together with your name and other identifying information provided (including any social media identifier, handle or profile picture). If you would like to know more about how we handle personal information we receive as part of your Contributions, please see our privacy policy.

We do not, unless we agree this with you, claim any rights of ownership in your Contribution. That means you keep all ownership rights in your Contribution and, although we will be able to use the Contribution as set out in these Terms, you will also have the right to use your Contribution in any way you choose. If we ever plan to acquire ownership of your Contribution this will be made clear on the relevant website or social media channel (or in the relevant campaign) and you will then be able to choose whether to provide your Contribution on that basis.

In ‘legal speak’, the 2 paragraphs above mean that if you submit a Contribution to us, you are granting us an unconditional, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable, perpetual worldwide licence to use, publish and/or transmit, and to authorise third-parties to use, publish and/or transmit your Contribution. This includes, without limitation, any social media identifier, handle, profile picture, image, likeness, posts, statements or other information provided by you, in any form, media, or technology (whether now known or hereafter developed) in connection with our marketing, advertising and promotional activities.

You agree that this includes the right for us to make such Contribution available to other companies, organisations or individuals who partner with us for the syndication, broadcast, distribution or publication of your Contribution on other media and services, subject always to these Terms. You also agree that in the event we receive any royalties, compensation or other payments associated with exercising the rights granted to us under these Terms, you can’t claim any right to any portion of such royalties, compensation or other payments.

Conditions that apply to your Contributions

Before you submit a Contribution to us, you must make sure:

  • that you are 18 years or older
  • that if children are featured in the Contribution, you are the parent/guardian with legal responsibility of any minors depicted in the Contribution and have their permission to include them
  • that the Contribution is original to you and does not infringe the copyright, intellectual property, or any other right of any person or company
  • that the Contribution is not defamatory, obscene or sexually oriented, abusive, vulgar, offensive, indecent, harassing, threatening
  • that the Contribution is not in contempt of court
  • that the Contribution does not promote or threaten violence toward anyone or advance criminal activities, including terrorism, human trafficking or modern slavery
  • that the Contribution does not breach any person’s privacy and you have the rights from any and all persons and/or companies appearing in such Contribution to use their names, images or likenesses
  • that nothing in the Contribution constitutes illegal activity or conduct that could give rise to liability or encourage others to take part in criminal conduct or conduct that could give rise to liability
  • that the Contribution does not include an advertisement, promotion, commercial solicitation, contest or survey
  • that the Contribution does not contain, transmit or disseminate spam, chain letters, viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage or adversely affect the operation of another’s computer, the website, or any software, hardware or other related equipment
  • We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to edit any Contribution and to choose to include, not include or remove a Contribution from our website or any other materials where the Contribution may appear.

Our responsibility

You agree that we are not responsible for, and have no liability for any Contribution submitted by you or other users and published by us or by authorised third parties.

You agree to hold harmless and release us, along with our respective officers, directors, employees, agents, assigns, licensees and successors, from any and all claims, demands, or causes of action (collectively ‘claims’) that you or your heirs, representatives, executors, administrators, or any other persons acting on your behalf or on behalf of your estate have or may have, whether now in in the future, relating to the use of your Contribution, including without limitation, any claims of defamation, invasion of privacy, rights of publicity or copyright, or any other right you may have.

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about a Contribution or about these Terms.

Links policy

We are are not responsible for the content or reliability of linked websites and do not endorse any views expressed within them. The content and availability of external sites will change over time.  Please contact us if you encounter any broken links or material you feel inappropriate on a linked site.

We aim to deliver links that allow access to additional information, background material or, if appropriate, informed comment.

The content of other sites is beyond our editorial control and may change over time.  This means before linking to any site we check the content of the site thoroughly and carry out further checks after the link is established.

We never include a link in return for money, services or any other consideration in kind.  In accordance with NHS guidelines, we do not link to commercial sites, unless working with a commercial partner.

Links are made available on relevant pages rather than a dedicated links page, in accordance with NHS guidelines.

How we support our clinicians

To ensure our referring clinicians are able to treat patients, we provide the following services to them.

Higher value services

Consulting rooms are available for private outpatient appointments at each of our sites. We charge clinicians the following fees at market rates:

At Royal Brompton Hospital, Harefield Hospital and Wimpole Street Consulting Rooms and Diagnostic Centre, we charge the consultant:

  • £14 per patient appointment, for the first four patients seen on one day
  • if five or more patient appointments take place on one day, then we charge a set fee of £70 per day

At Evelina London Children’s Hospital we charge the consultant:

  • £10 per attendance for children’s services

At St Thomas’ Hospital we charge the consultant:

  • £25 per attendance
  • £125 per attendance for use of the consulting room and ECHO machine

To ensure a smooth journey for both patients and clinicians, the following services are provided, for which we do not charge the clinicians:

  • outpatient reception assistance, for example welcoming patients and directing them to the appropriate consulting room
  • inpatient administration assistance, for example arranging consultants to visit patients while they are on the ward.

Secretarial services are not provided for clinicians. Rather, it is the clinician’s responsibility to employ their own secretary, if required.

Low value services

We do not charge clinicians for low value services.

Referring clinicians, like other staff in the private patient unit, have access to regular workplace amenities, including:

  • tea, coffee and water
  • stationary
  • car parking

In order to communicate to patients and referrers about the range of expert specialists available at our centre, clinicians are profiled or featured in marketing materials. This may include:

  • our printed consultant directory
  • printed marketing materials like leaflets or adverts
  • our website and social media channels
  • our magazines
  • general promotion, including through third party channels

We may take photographs of the clinician for use in the above communications and materials, and share them with the clinician for their own use.

Corporate hospitality

We may occasionally invite clinicians to attend seminar events, as a guest or a speaker. These events give clinicians an opportunity to share their specialist expertise and communicate the procedures or treatments that they offer, face-to-face with interested third parties such as referrers and embassy contacts. Events such as these are organised and/or hosted by our marketing and business development team, and clinicians are not charged to attend.

Events usually take place on our premises or virtually. Occasionally, events may take place at a nearby restaurant or other facility, depending on the room booking availability or the requirements of the event.

Due to the time of day when events take place, if the event crosses a mealtime then food and drinks may be provided for attendees. At events not crossing a mealtime then tea, coffee and light refreshments are usually provided.

We do not organise conferences or annual dinners solely for our clinicians.

Financial interest

As a private patient unit at an NHS Trust, there are no clinicians practising with us who have a share or financial interest in our hospitals, facilities or the equipment used.

Payments to part-time clinicians

All consultants who treat patients privately with us are self-employed for this purpose; they are not part-time employees. Therefore, no payments are made to referring clinicians holding a part-time position at our Trust.