Care Fertility

I am great full all of the staff because there there today I am a mother and have awesome 2 year boy

I am with care fertility at Bath, we are nhs patients. We are about to start our fet cycle. I have no complaints about the clinic. Everyone is so friendly and lovely. I also like the new system/app makes life so much easier and they response to messages very quick. Thank you

I urge people to stay away from this clinic. They really should have been shut down by now. Firstly, you are treated solely as a number. A number with money that they want. That is all you are. You cannot get a hold of anyone there when you need them. I often spent over an hour on the phone trying to get through. When you do finally get through you get told you will be contacted within 24 hours. They rarely got back to us. We tried our first cycle with CARE and I have to say it was an extremely challenging and stressful period in our lives. I don’t want to go into too much detail but here are the main points: We started our journey with Bath Care Fertility in Mid 2022, where we paid for a private scan, blood tests and Seamen Analysis and the start of the process with the thought of going privately. After this we had our results, and we were advised that we should try for funding, something we weren't advised on before the tests were carried out and paid for. After 2-3 months of waiting to hear about our successful funding we then got told by Care that we need to start process all over again and have the same tests done, because they can’t use the results from our previous tests. So, we redid the samples and again waited. After 3 months and another blood test we had a nurses planning meeting with one of their staff who I won’t name. She was incapable of allowing myself into the teams meeting with her and my wife (I was away abroad working). She was incredibly rude and condescending to my wife and put pressure on us by telling us we needed urgent blood tests carried out to enable us to start egg collection in the time frame that I would be home. I finally got through to her in a separate call that day and my wife was correct, she was incredibly rude and condescending. She tried to get me to get blood tests done abroad with a day or twos notice. This pressure was completely unwarranted because when I got home we managed to get the tests done and start treatment with no issues. I can only assume she got her dates wrong and caused undue stress. Never received an apology obviously. When I got home and we finally got the blood tests done in June 2023. We came out of the blood tests and were supposed to have an appointment with the nurses to move things forward. Ended up waiting an hour in the waiting room before anyone saw us. Finally started treatment in July. Unfortunately the embryo did not stick this time. (Also, they didn’t even use ultrasound when inserting the embryo. At TFP they did.) So, we contacted Bath Care Fertility to let them know it hadn't worked and had a review consultation on 22nd Aug 2023! We were then advised to get blood tests locally from the NHS to find my wife's Progesterone level. We tried this and NHS refused us and it was extremely difficult to do because they were adamant that funding was going to CARE so they should be doing it. (another money making tactic?) Finally managed to get a blood test by the grace of god. Sent the results in and guess what, no one even bothered to contact us! Again..... So I finally rang in December to get something happening and then got told nothing can happen until I make a payment to them to start. I immediately made payment and then, waited again for about a week and got told to wait another month for a nurses consultation. We waited, only to be told what we already knew and that it would be a few weeks until we could start treatment. At that time I was due to go away again. So it was not possible. We had enough at this point. We decided to spend hundreds of pounds to get the remaining embryos transferred to a clinic in Oxford. This was the best decision we could have made. This is how it should be done. Now we can truly see how bad CARE fertility are after seeing how it should be done. After I complained to CARE it took them months to reply. It even went over their complaints procedure time frame. I replied asking about compensation to cover the embryo transfer costs. They never even bothered to reply. We are now pregnant 😊

We’ve been dealing with Care Fertility since 2020 and can’t say we’ve had a very positive experience. The first thing to say is that the nurses do a great job. They are professional, welcoming and supportive throughout the process. They can be difficult to get hold of though which I think is a symptom of our first major gripe with Care Fertility. They’re not very good at communicating with you. There were a number of occasions when we received surprise invoices for services we either didn’t know we were getting or hadn’t been told there would be a separate charge for. Twice we only found out about them in reception as we were leaving after appointments which was embarrassing in front of a busy waiting area. We were told that any updates and invoices would be on the MyCare Portal. They never were. The MyCare Portal was a constant sticking point. We’d get emails pointing us to new documents that needed to be completed to a deadline in order for our treatment to continue. They were never there. We would have to call in and ask where we were up to and be told “they should be there”! Those calls would be answered in a satellite office where the only thing they could do, when there was eventually an answer, would be to take a message and ask someone to give us a call later. We would not get a time frame. Secondly, we felt we were treated simply as pound signs. Our first meetings were with two of the consultants, both very knowledgeable but we did feel they were cold. One became quite rude when we had more questions than he was happy to answer and would huff, puff and check his watch. The other was mainly disinterested. They were also insistent on calling my wife “geriatric”. While this may be the correct terminology in the fertility world for a woman over 35 becoming a mother, basic personal skills should advise that this isn’t helpful. After an unsuccessful first attempt we had frozen embryos available for a second attempt. At this point we were offered a separate screening to see if there were any abnormalities with the final embryo they held. This had never been mentioned or offered before and felt like it was an attempt at upselling to a couple desperate for help. Any and all support offered is at a price and is a closed door until every invoice is paid. We made our feeling known after our first attempt with IVF and had a long phone conversation with a customer experience lead who went through our concerns with us and ensured that our comments would be noted. If anything, for our second round, it was worse. There were times we felt like we were simply an imposition. On the day of the embryo transfer we were greeted at the door to be told that the staff were currently using the waiting area for a party. We asked if they would rather we waited in the car until they had finished and were told “erm…no…you can come in if you want.” This was on a day when we were feeling nervous and anxious about the procedure my wife was about to undertake and to be made to feel quite unwelcome was a shock. Throughout the last four years, we have not felt like patients, customers or even valued clients. We were a necessity of a transaction. If we decide to continue our fertility journey, I’m afraid it won’t be with Care Fertility and we wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else.

Overall had a pleasant experience with Care Bath; every staff member we encountered were lovely and we always felt welcomed even as NHS patients. The phone doesn't really get answered but the nurses are excellent at responding via email. From the start of our IVF journey to the end, it's felt like a smooth transition and we were kept in the loop every step of the way. Unfortunately our transfers didn't work and we're back to square one with trying for our first baby.