The Hewitt Fertility Centre, Knutsford

Where to start? Our journey with Knutsford Hewitt Fertility centre started in March 2022. We'd been trying unsuccessfully for a number of years and IVF was the logical next step. We opted to go private and reviewed a number of clinics in Greater Manchester and opted to proceed with the Hewitt clinic. In total we had 3 IVF rounds with a fresh embryo transfer each time, and 1 final frozen embryo transfer over the course of 12 months. We found the level of care from the Hewitt facility to be of a really poor standard and would recommend anyone seeking IVF treatment to look elsewhere. Firstly, let's start with the good bits. Generally speaking the nurses and embryologists provided a good level of care, were supportive and we're a credit to their profession. We did have one nurse tell us we were unethical for freezing our embryos which was rather surprising and somewhat distressing. The most damning assessment is the of the Hewitt is the lack of accountability, after or final treatment we received a letter informing us that we had a spare frozen embryo available for transfer, this shouldn't be the case as we used our only frozen embryo for our last attempt. So did the Hewitt use the incorrect embryo? It's really distressing how this could happen. The administration of the Hewitt Facility centre is appalling, it's impossible to simply contact the centre to arrange medication, reviews or future treatments. If the phones are answered at all, every bit of communication involves several phone calls followed by several missed phone calls, the Hewitt works on the premise that you have no life and wait by your phone several days a week on the vague hope you might get a returned phone call. It's infuriating, time consuming, stressful and above all else a really poor level of care in what is already a stressful time. When you eventually do get a return phone call, it rarely leads to any sort of outcome, rather another follow up call. There's little to no thought process in terms of treatment, i.e you're told you can process to another round of IVF only then to find out the Hewitt are unable to arrange for medication to be sent out, or another popular issue is your "review" following your treatment that can take months to arrange. A few other notable things to mention. Our first IVF transfer was really stressful and for some reason several staff members were present overseeing the transfer. We only realised afterwards this was likely a trainee doctor, this was never confirmed but if you're ever in a similar situation always ask. One other bug bear was the lack of respect for my wife following egg collections. She'd always be wheeled back into our waiting room in a state of undress and usually with her robe undone before being manhandled into her bed whilst she waited for the medication to wear off. It's a really uncomfortable process to watch, especially whilst your loved one is in such a vulnerable state. I had to intervene on two occasions to provide some degree of decency. Lastly, the chain of communication from the doctor to the admin team and then nurses is a real problem. After two unsuccessful attempts we insisted on some blood tests to rule out anything obvious, of course we turned up as scheduled and the whole process was in such a disarray as no tests were planned for me and the team hastily arranged to take some blood. To this day I really have no idea what tests were carried out. We are now with another Manchester based clinic who are the polar opposite from the Hewitt in terms of facilities, communication, care and investigations. We now have some possible answers with regards to why previous treatments likely didn't work. We would recommend that Hewitt invest in further training into implantation failure, as a simple 400 blood may have saved us over 25,000 pounds we wasted with Hewitt. Avoid the Hewitt at all costs.
Feb 10th, 2023

There is a serious lack of professionalism and communication between patients and staff I feel that this centre has let me down. I lost 4 viable embryos because of their carelessness and negligence. Then they try to lay the blame on me- patient shaming. Disappointing.
Jan 15th, 2023

My very first experience and couldnt fault them. So friendly and left feeling very positive. The one nurse that stood out was a lady called ann maria having a nice chat to her made my day.
May 22nd, 2021

May 13th, 2021

Dec 24th, 2019