Nucleus Healthcare appeared in the Vale Life Magazine Winter 2010, view the article below

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Read the recent press articles Nucleus Healthcare have appeared in:

Wellbeing Magazine

WM Advertorial

Boss’ joy: ‘Private gastroenterology clinic to complement NHS’

DR MANNY Srivastava jokingly calls the UK’s first private gastroenterology unit, in Newport, a “one-stop bottom shop” – but he is serious about its potential to help NHS as well as fee-paying patients.

The £10 million Nucleus Healthcare unit, on the city’s Celtic Springs Business Park, was officially opened yesterday by athletics great Colin Jackson, whose mother, Angela, an endoscopy nurse, worked with Dr Srivastava.

The unit boasts two endoscopy theatres, ten ensuite rooms for patients, outpatient consulting rooms, laboratories, teaching and training facilities and 87 car-parking spaces. It also has the capacity to perform 60 endoscopies a day, along with other gastroenterological investigations on a daycase basis.

“I don’t feel we are in competition with the NHS, but rather,we complement it,” said Dr Srivastava, who is Nucleus Healthcare’s chief executive and medical director, and who worked for 13 years as a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Gwent Hospital before leaving to pursue his dream of creating a stand-alone centre.

Private referrals have risen steadily during the unit’s first six months, but Dr Srivastava says Nucleus Healthcare could also help the NHS meet bowel cancer screening programme requirements in Wales – which, it recently emerged, will not be completed until 2015 – charging the service the NHS tariff rate, which is less than half the usual £1,070 rate at his unit.

Whether or not NHS patients are sent to the unit in future, there is much to keep Dr Srivastava and his colleagues busy.

“We have increased the number of staff from 20 to 30 since opening, and have seven consultants involved. I feel we are in a position to take on a lot more work,” said Dr Srivastava.

There is room to build a daysurgery site at Celtic Springs, and the company is looking to develop similar centres.

2 July 2008

Nucleus Healthcares “My son’s bowel cancer was diagnosed as IBS” article was featured in Ladies First.

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Jun 30 2008 by Gregory Tindle, Western Mail

A NEW £10m private health centre’s offer to trim up to five months off NHS cancer screening looks set to be rejected by the Assembly Government, according to the doctor behind the scheme

The centre at Celtic Springs Business Park, Newport, will be officially launched tomorrow boasting just a 24-hour wait for bowel cancer screening. This compares to waits of up to five months for a check-up at a local hospital.

The state-of–the-art specialist service claiming it can check up to 60 patients a day has been developed at the Celtic Springs Business Park, serving a catchment area of two million across South Wales.

It is the idea of Dr Manny Srivastava, former consultant at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, who left the NHS with personal concerns about the long waits his patients were facing for cancer checks.

The unit will be opened by former Olympic athlete Colin Jackson – whose mother, Angela, an endoscopy sister, has worked with Dr Srivastava – Jonathan Morgan, the Tory health spokesman for Wales, and former Montgomeryshire Assembly Member Glyn Davies, who has been successfully treated for bowel cancer.

Both politicians have supported the unit, saying it will help roll out the complete NHS bowel cancer screening programme for Wales after it recently emerged this would not be completed until 2015.

But staying away from the launch, which takes place just two days before the 60th anniversary of the NHS, will be local MP Paul Flynn, whose Newport West constituency includes the clinic site.

He said: “I shall not be attending the opening. This is not a major event and I have no view on this venture. What I shall be celebrating is the 60th anniversary of the NHS, which has supported me and my family all my life. The creation of the NHS was the best reform of the last century for which I have immense gratitude. Private medicine has had a generally corrosive effect on the NHS, which still provides one of the best health services in the world.”

Dr Srivastava says it was disillusionment with the NHS that provided the inspiration for his clinic. He said: “When I first formed the idea, I had a substantive private practice, but I was frustrated with the service provided to NHS patients compared to the quality and speed of service my private patients were receiving.

“In Wales, waiting times have remained significantly higher than in England. The average wait for a routine check at the Royal Gwent Hospital currently stands at around five months. This compares to an average of six weeks in England.”

Dr Srivastava charges £1,070 for an bowel cancer check – within 24 hours – and there is a similar charge for other internal investigations including those on the mouth, throat and stomach which can test for heart and liver problems. “We have offered the service to the NHS at NHS prices which are £475 for a bowel check but I’ve heard nothing from the Welsh Assembly Government,” he said.

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government said: “The Bowel Screening Programme was always intended to be phased in using NHS providers. The first phase of screening will start this October with people aged 60-69 and those individuals with a strong family history of bowel cancer.”

Nucleus Healthcare appeared in the WM Spring 2010 Magazine, view the article here

Wales Online, – 27 Oct 2008

Shadow health minister Jonathan Morgan warns against ending health service use of private sector THE National Assembly last week had its statutory debate on the progress of the Labour-Plaid Government’s One Wales programme.

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