Guide
How to check a private hospital before booking surgery
Updated
Before you transfer money for an operation, three public sources will tell you most of what a brochure will not. None of them costs anything to use.
The regulator holds the register
Independent healthcare in England is regulated by the Care Quality Commission. CQC's guidance on who has to register states that service providers must register with CQC, that CQC registers the regulated activity being carried on rather than the service type or profession, and that it is the legal entity carrying on the activity that must register rather than the location (CQC, page last updated 29 January 2025).
CQC's public search lets you look up hospitals and clinics and read the inspection reports and ratings behind them (find care services). Outside England the equivalents are Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority in Northern Ireland.
Check the surgeon separately from the hospital
A registered hospital does not tell you who is holding the instruments. The General Medical Council maintains the public register of doctors practising in the UK, showing registration status, whether a doctor holds a licence to practise, and whether they are on the specialist register and in which specialty. Look the named surgeon up on the GMC's own website and check the specialty fits the operation being offered, which for gallbladder removal means general surgery.
The Private Healthcare Information Network publishes a second view. PHIN describes itself as a government-mandated, industry-certified independent organisation publishing information about the safety, quality and costs of private healthcare, and lets you search consultants and hospitals by area.
Questions no register will answer for you
- Ask who will carry out the operation by name, and what happens if that surgeon becomes unavailable.
- Ask what on-site cover exists overnight and at weekends, and where you would be transferred if you needed intensive care.
- Ask what the hospital does, and what it charges, if you are readmitted with a complication after discharge.
- Ask for the price basis, the inclusions and the exclusions in writing before paying a deposit.
We do not rate hospitals or surgeons and will not name a best one. Registration status, published inspection findings and clear written answers to your own questions are firmer ground than any ranking, including ours.