The McCarthy Clinic opened its doors in November 2020, during the second wave of the pandemic. The ethos and vision at that time was to enable patients to undergo smaller procedures under local anaesthetic in a community setting. Ambulatory surgery of this nature (proctology) is not traditionally offered in the UK however it is commonplace in the USA and Europe. At that time, there was widespread concern that undergoing a general anaesthetic would entail a significant risk to life if COVID was contracted. In addition, many private hospitals were fully engaged in NHS COVID related pressure work. This left patients with little option to seek surgical help.

When the clinic first opened, a website was up and running and there was little in the way of advertising. The first few patients came along as a result of my NHS reputation and as such were not direct consultations for minor surgery. I was unsure as to how the clinic would develop. The first patient underwent minor surgery in July 2021, 8 months after opening. The initial feedback was good and the procedures looked to be well tolerated.

The general feedback I have encountered from patients, is that they face difficulties in accessing care for their anal conditions via the GP/NHS and similarly in larger private hospitals due to priorities in care.

Now, the McCarthy Clinic is busy and mostly fully booked every Thursday morning. There is capacity to extend the clinic each week from 12.30 – 2pm for emergency patients and we offer occasional Saturdays and Tuesdays. We have now performed over 50 minor procedures with excellent feedback reported on iwantgreatcare.com website for doctors. I have provided 2 GP webinars in the evening about differing topics for local GPs. I have received excellent feedback and have 1 further talk planned for December.

Our vision remains – to enable rapid access, ambulatory or ‘walking’ surgery for patients with painful & bothersome anal conditions without the need to spend long times on a waiting list for a general anaesthetic.