hi - I had DS1 at the Portland and DS2 at an NHS hospital (outside of London). There was absolutely no comparison, in terms of care, cleanliness, anything. The care at the Portland was great, we came in at 4 AM on Saturday night and I was immediately examined, asked for an epidural and got one, as things progressed they then called the consultant who appeared and delivered the baby - all smooth, no problems, no C-section, fabulous experience. I know a number of other people who've had babies there and all of them have had very good experiences. I haven't heard a single horror story, other than the widely reported maternal death story in the press a couple of years back.
This in stark contrast with my local NHS maternity hospital, the Rosie in Cambridge. I went into labour unexpectedly at 32 weeks with DS2 and went into the Rosie. Despite what was obviously a high-risk situation, no one even bothered to examine me for an hour. I finally came out and screamed at them for a while, then was told that the midwife was "not allowed to examine anyone who was only 32 weeks" and that I had to wait for the consultant. Who did not show up. At all. At this point I was so distressed that I nearly got up and walked out so I could get on a train to London and go to the Portland.
Finally the midwife gave in and examined me, and then a so-called registrar, who I guess was a doctor, but clearly had no idea what was going on. I asked for an epidural, and they literally laughed at me, and said "Don't be silly, you're not having this baby today." I asked for drugs to stop the labour and by the time the guy showed up with them, it was way too late to do anything. They did an internal exam on me including a vaginal scan, about 10 minutes before the baby actually came out, all the while insisting that he was not going to be born that day - I can't begin to express how painful and horrifying this was. Throughout, there was no consideration for me as a patient, and seemingly no understanding of what the actual situation was - just a sort of bizarrely obsessive "we must follow these procedures" attitude which undoubtedly contributed to the riskiness of the situation. Thank god it was a straightforward birth, despite being so premature - I still shudder to think what would have happened to DS2 if he'd been breech or had the cord wrapped around his neck or any of the many common things that can go wrong.
After the baby was delivered, the registrar disappeared, and I never saw her again. No one was willing to even tell me what her name was so I could file a formal complaint. The consultant never appeared, during the birth, or later.
To top things off, DS2 then ended up spending 6 weeks in the NICU and SCBU, where he contracted MRSA, which had clearly been transferred to him by a doctor or nurse from another infected baby in the unit. The hospital did not do any routine MRSA testing so had not even been aware that this other baby had it in the first place, until he underwent a test because he was to be transferred to another hospital. So we got to live with that too, for many months - thank goodness he's clear of it now and by sheer good luck had no ill effects from it. The hospital staff gave us no support at all in coping with this, other than sticking my son in an incubator to "isolate" him from other children in the SCBU, and I had to resort to calling my London ob-gyn (who had delivered DS1 at the Portland) for advice. He said he had very little experience with this since MRSA was not a problem at the Portland, but kindly referred me to a bacteriologist who did research on it and was very helpful - totally unlike the NHS staff I dealt with, who were, with one exception, basically all just interested in covering their backs when things went wrong, which seemed to be a pretty regular occurrence.
I would not hesitate to recommend the Portland. If you want a safe birth, good care for both you and babies, and happy memories of it all, it's really worth it. Don't listen to scaremongering on here (all of which, I note, is from people who did not have their babies there). I think because it is expensive and lots of celebrities go there, the Portland attracts a certain amount of undeserved flak. As for the NHS, you can probably guess my opinion from the above. I would fly to another country rather than risk having another baby in an NHS hospital.