Gary Ransome

My name is Gary Ransome. I live in East Sussex and I attended Benenden Hospital in, I think, it was January of this year and it was for treatment for a prostate complaint. Its professionalism and its care and its hygiene and it's very central to where I live. I needed to urinate quite frequently and I had a pain on the pelvic bone.

Absolutely excellent. First class, put my mind at ease, gave me a thorough examination and I got on with him straight away. Fabulous guy. Informative, caring and enthusiastic. I know it sounds a bit strange, but the enthusiasm was the fact that he wanted to make you feel relaxed. First class. Absolutely super, brand new building, modern. It just was. I thought I was in a hotel, it looked so lovely.

Six months on. It's fantastic. I've got no symptoms at all. I'd always recommend Benenden Hospital simply because you get the best treatment for a fair price and you get to see top class consultants. I would suggest that they don't hide the symptoms and they go straight away to their GP and don't suffer because there's always help available.

Nigel Batt

My name's Nigel Batt. I'm a retired Chartered Accountant. I live in Sevenoaks with my wife. I went to Benenden for treatment for an enlarged prostate, basically. When I went to see my doctor, there was a long wait in urology. 

The problem was basically urinating. I had difficulty going to the toilet, basically, because the enlarged prostate was reducing the flow. That meant that my bladder wasn't emptying properly. So I had to go to the toilet more often and sometimes urgently. But the worst part was during the night, I'd wake up needing to go to the toilet. When I got there, I couldn't really do anything. So I'd go back to bed and I'd wake up a little while later and I would do this probably four or five times a night, which was a bit stressful.

Well, I was having trouble. My symptoms were getting worse. I'd been to the doctor a couple of years earlier and I wasn't too happy about the possibility of an operation etc. So I put it off, as a lot of men do. But I was talking to two of my very close friends, who were having similar symptoms and both of them had recently had a TURP operation very successfully. And that completely changed my mind. So I decided I really needed to do something about it.

I saw Mr Steve Garnett and he was excellent. It was very comprehensive. Mr Garnett was excellent. He was patient, very professional. He went through the various options available to me in great detail. He explained the side effects, the benefits of the operation, what I would experience, etc. He then gave me two leaflets for the two operations that were available to me, which explained everything in complete detail, what I was likely to experience and there was no pressure. I felt very relaxed talking to him.

They were excellent. What impressed me was just walking through the door into the reception, meeting the receptionist, very polite, worked very well etc. I was then escorted up to the ward. I was shown the room I was going to be staying in. The nurses were very professional and they were kind and considerate. And what was also very impressive was the catering staff and the cleaning staff. I mean, you know, they were polite, everything about it was a very pleasant experience, which is why I actually wrote to the surgeon afterwards to thank him for the professionalism that he and all his staff had shown me.

The one thing about Benenden is when you walk in, it's so calm and relaxed. And basically that says it all to me, if you're going to go to hospital, that is a fantastic place to be. I never actually was unable to do anything as a result of all this. It was more a question of getting worried about cancer which way it was going and what I was going to do about it, and I did put it off for a long time. Having had the operation, I really am so, so much better and I don't have the stress any more. One of the benefits of having the TURP is that they are able to test the tissue that's taken away from the prostate for any abnormalities and in my case, everything was fine. So it's a huge sense of relief and my well being now is excellent.

My experience and that of my wife, she's also been treated at Benenden, has been exceptional. I couldn't fault it in any way. Don't wait as long as me. It is something that is worrying when you get older, you worry about cancer, you have your PSA tests and they come back and they look reasonably ok, but it's not that satisfactory, but don't wait too long. It's like so many things, the sooner it's dealt with, the better.