Fertility Clinics in the North East.. which to choose?

[dogmam]

I thought I'd been referred to my local hospital but turns out I have a choice of 5 clinics to choose from. How do you know which clinic to choose? I work from home and my works quite flexible so I don't need to automatically go with the closest for ease of getting to appointments etc. What should i base my decision on? The initial appointment waiting times are all fairly similar give or take a couple of weeks. I've looked on the HFEA website but again all the information is fairly similar in terms of reviews etc.

Does anyone have any experience of either of these clinics:
Bishop Aukland Hospital
South Tyneside District Hospital
Sunderland Royal Hospital
The Life Centre Newcastle
University Hospital of North Durham

Thank you in advance!

I went to Bishop Auckland Hospital they don't offer IVF there we were with the a year. We need IVF and had to move to James cook . Bishop was ok but not as good as James cook xxx

@hoping1 thank you, and I hope things are going well for you.
I called bishop aukland clinic yesterday and they said they aren't doing SA yet and haven't been since March, so not sure if that's the best choice for us, although they do have the soonest appointment so still not sure what to do!

If I could go back o would choose a big one that you can stay with incase of ivf. They are back to doing everything xxx

Ok thank you, that's really helpful xx

Definitely not Sunderland, I found them appalling. I'm surprised Gateshead isn't an option?

@juneybean thank you for that. I'm put off sunderland anyway because they have the longest wait, plus it looks like they don't do all treatments and are just a smaller clinic. I've tried to ring them and have never been able to get through, which doesn't fill me with confidence either.
I know, I'm guttered gateshead hasn't been offered. To be hoesnt though it would have been so much easier to just not have been given any options then I could have justbeen focused on waiting for the appointment instead of stressing about choosing a clinic and putting off booking an appointment. I just need to make a decision and get one booked.
..but now I am half tempted to ring my GP and ask how easy it is for them to put Gateshead on the e-referral list, not sure if they would be willing to do that?

I would definitely try, as I love Gateshead they've been so good with me as both an NHS patient and a private patient.

As far as I knew, Sunderland would refer you to Center for Life for anything like IUI or IVF, so if not Gateshead I would go direct to Center for Life.

Thank you @juneybean I'm pleased you've had a good experience with gateshead. I hope you have had success with your treatment and things are working out for you.
I've rang Gateshead and they said they think I wasn't referred to them because they don't use the e-referral system. To be honest I think I might just go with the Centre for Life, I'm just wasting time fafing on analysing results.

Sadly no treatment success as need to lower my BMI but previously had IUI with them (again no success!) and they were just so accomodating and helpful.

Best of luck whichever clinic you use! x

We used the Life centre at Newcastle for our NHS treatments and I don’t rate them, I wish we had went under the QE at Gateshead.
The communication is poor
Appointments times are never on time
You never see the same person, unless you state you want to see that person, only realised that when I overheard another patient ask if they were seeing their consultant today.
One of my treatments they were ment to call me at a certain time and they didn’t and I felt very let down by the service of care, they forgot to inform me that I wouldn’t be going in for ET because my Frosties had failed to thaw, so I was waiting thinking I was going in for treatment and that was it, end of treatment, totally error, should of put a complaint in but don’t like to complain.
I always dreaded going to that place. My partner hates it too, we are looking going abroad now for treatment.
I would of loved to have gone to QE sounds warm and friendly x

Hi @weneedaegg thank you for that although that does scare me a little as we have our first appointment on the 5th Jan.
Sorry it didn't work out for at Newcastle. Are you any further forward with perusing somewhere abroad? Could you not go to the QE?

Hi there
Please don’t let that put you off, everyone has a opinion sorry, I know people that rate them highly, it’s just my experience against hundreds of others.
We can’t use the QE unfortunately as the treatment that we need would require us finding our own donor, we have used up our free cycles on the NHS and over 40, they don’t offer this as a private cycle as there just isn’t enough eggs, for both private and NHS patients. We are going to go to Prague in the summer as it’s so much cheaper to do it there we have been in touch with lots of people and have found a promising clinic. Thanks

Sorry would just like to add our experience at the life centre was more than 2 years ago, so it’s probably all different now xx

@weneedaegg ahh well fingers crossed for you that everything works out in Prague, just so unfair that you have to go abroad.

I got my confirmation appointment letter today in the post so obviously been googling the consultant. Looking forward to just having the appointment and seeing what they have to say.