Highgate Private Hospital

Highgate Private Hospital, in View Road, Highgate is run by Aspen Healthcare, a subsidiary of United Surgical Partners International. It was established in 1988.^[1] The building was acquired by Health Care REIT, Inc. in 2015 along with Aspen Healthcare’s three other London hospitals for £226 million and leased back to Aspen on a 25-year lease.^[2]

It was expanded during 2015 at a cost of £13 million to provide 43 en-suite patient rooms, a High Dependency Unit, four operating theatres, an Endoscopy Suite, Physiotherapy Suite, 15 outpatient rooms, and a private GP service.^[3] Neurosurgery services were expanded in 2013 with the recruitment of consultant neurosurgeon Mary Murphy.^[4]

It offers treatments which are restricted by the NHS, such as varicose veins. It provides plastic surgery, including what is claimed to be the biggest fake boob job in Britain^[5] where the hospital provided Debbie Delamar with 2.8 litres of intrathoracic silica needed to take her to size 30KK she wanted when no other hospital would.^{[6] [7]} The hospital has been mentioned in a number of high profile cases which have generated litigation.^[8][9] It has also been featured on Embarrassing Bodies.^[10] Some of its surgeons are ‘Fifo’s – ‘fly in, fly out’ foreign surgeons who have no insurance in the UK.^[11]

The hospital director is Mark Lyons, formerly an anaesthetic practitioner in the NHS.^[12]

The hospital featured in a reported legal case in tort, Batt v Highgate Private Hospital [2004] which established that a widower could not recover damages in respect of the cost of the cosmetic surgery which had resulted in his wife's death at the hospital.^[13]

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