Ottery St Mary Hospital

Ottery St Mary Hospital operates from Keegan Close in Ottery St Mary, holding CQC registration as a hospital, within the South West region. The registered provider is Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the legal entity accountable to the regulator for the quality and safety of care delivered here.

A hospital brings together consultant-led specialties, diagnostics, operating theatres and inpatient beds on one registered site. Ottery St Mary Hospital operates under CQC registration covering the specific regulated activities it performs — surgical procedures, diagnostic imaging, treatment of disease and disorder — and every doctor practising there is registered with the General Medical Council, with consultants listed on the specialist register.

England's hospital landscape mixes NHS trusts with independent hospitals, and the two increasingly interlock: independent hospitals deliver a substantial share of NHS-funded planned surgery — hips, knees, cataracts, hernias — under NHS choice rules, while also serving self-pay and insured patients. The same consultant frequently operates across both sectors; what changes is the funding route, the waiting time and the hotel services around the clinical core.

Administratively, the service falls under Devon, within the South West region, in a city with 10 registered healthcare providers of all types. That local footprint matters for social-care funding and community-service referrals, both of which are organised at local-authority level.

The CQC publishes inspection reports for registered locations as they are completed; the official record for this location is linked in the registration section below and is the most reliable public account of how the service performs.

Hospitals register with the CQC for defined regulated activities and populations. For Ottery St Mary Hospital, the register records:

Services for everyone

This provider is registered without population restrictions — its service is open to the general public rather than limited to specific age bands or clinical groups. In practice this is the standard registration for mainstream services such as dental practices, GP surgeries and diagnostic clinics.

Use these declarations actively: they tell you which providers are even eligible for your situation, and they give you the vocabulary for sharper questions. Needs that span more than one group deserve special attention — ask any prospective service how the care plan will address both together, and listen for specifics rather than reassurance.

Treat these declarations as the service's public promise — inspectors check against them, and you are entitled to ask exactly how each one shows up in staffing and daily practice.

Not every hospital offers every service below at every site, so verify the specific treatment you need with Ottery St Mary Hospital when you book.

Outpatient consultations

Consultant appointments for diagnosis, treatment planning and follow-up across the hospital's specialties.

Planned (elective) surgery

Scheduled operations from day-case procedures to complex inpatient surgery, with pre-operative assessment beforehand.

Diagnostic imaging

On-site X-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI supporting rapid work-up — often the practical advantage of hospital-based care.

Physiotherapy and rehabilitation

Pre- and post-operative rehabilitation that determines how much benefit surgery actually delivers.

Endoscopy

Camera investigations of the digestive tract for reflux, bleeding, anaemia and bowel-cancer surveillance.

Pre-operative assessment

Structured fitness-for-surgery checks — bloods, ECG, anaesthetic review — that reduce cancellations and complications.

Inpatient and day-case beds

Nursed beds with resident or on-call medical cover; independent hospitals must publish how emergencies are escalated.

Private GP and urgent appointments

Many independent hospitals offer rapid-access clinics that feed into specialist pathways on the same site.

To contact Ottery St Mary Hospital directly, call 01404816000 or use the enquiry route on its website (linked in the contact section above).

There are three doors into Ottery St Mary Hospital. NHS-funded: exercise your legal right to choose at the GP referral stage — for most planned care you can pick any hospital holding an NHS contract for that treatment, including independent hospitals; waiting lists differ dramatically between hospitals, so ask your GP to show you the options. Insured: obtain pre-authorisation from your insurer, then book the consultant appointment. Self-pay: contact the hospital directly; most publish fixed-price packages and can see you within days.

Whichever route, the consultant is the pivotal choice. Check their GMC specialist registration, their subspecialty interest (a knee surgeon for a knee, not a general orthopaedist), and how many of your specific procedure they perform annually. Hospitals' private patient teams will tell you consultants' NHS base and practice volume if you ask directly.

Before surgery, use the pre-operative assessment properly: disclose every medication and health condition, ask what prehabilitation (exercise, smoking cessation, weight) would improve your outcome, and get the enhanced-recovery plan in writing — length of stay, physiotherapy schedule and follow-up arrangements.

Ottery St Mary Hospital has not yet published opening hours on this profile (the official register does not capture them; they are added when a provider claims its listing). Ring the service (01404816000) to confirm today's hours before travelling — the two-minute call is cheaper than a wasted journey, especially around bank holidays.

If you have flexibility, avoid calling first thing on Monday, when demand across healthcare peaks; a Tuesday-to-Thursday mid-morning call usually gets answered quickest and gives reception the most room to help.

A first appointment at a hospital is part assessment, part administration — and you control how productive the assessment half is.

Bring the paperwork that saves repeating yourself: a list of current medications with doses (a photo of the boxes works), any relevant hospital letters or test results, your NHS number if you know it, and glasses or hearing aids if you use them. If the appointment concerns someone you care for, bring evidence of any legal authority you hold — power of attorney documents change what staff can lawfully discuss with you.

Expect the first appointment to include identity and history checks, a discussion of what you need, and an examination or assessment appropriate to the service. Be direct about two things in particular: everything you are taking (including over-the-counter and herbal products), and what outcome you actually want — clinicians plan differently for "I want to be seen quickly" versus "I want the most thorough option".

Before you leave, make sure three questions have answers: what happens next, who does it, and when. Vague follow-up arrangements are where care most often goes adrift; a specific next step — a booked review, a named referral, a results date with a way to chase it — is the mark of a well-run service, and it is entirely reasonable to ask for it explicitly.

NHS-funded treatment at any contracted hospital is free at the point of use — the choice right costs you nothing. Self-pay surgery is usually offered as a fixed-price package; scrutinise what it covers: consultant and anaesthetist fees, implants/prostheses, imaging, physiotherapy, and — critically — the policy on treating complications and readmissions, which reputable packages include for a defined period.

With private medical insurance, confirm three things before admission: pre-authorisation for the specific procedure code, whether your chosen consultant charges within your insurer's fee schedule (or will shortfall-bill you), and any excess or out-patient limits on your policy. Hospitals' pricing teams handle these questions daily — use them.

Ottery St Mary Hospital is located at Keegan Close,Ottery St Mary, in the EX11 postcode district of Ottery St Mary. The full postcode, EX11 1DN, will take you to the door with any sat-nav or maps app — or use the Google Maps link for this exact location.

For public transport, enter the full postcode into a journey planner (National Rail, Traveline or your maps app) rather than searching the service name. Drivers should ask about parking at the point of booking — availability differs sharply between town-centre and residential locations, and knowing before you travel removes the most common source of appointment-day stress.

A note on catchment: some services (particularly NHS-commissioned ones) serve defined areas, so confirm when booking that your address falls within scope. Self-funded and independent services rarely restrict by geography — there, the only catchment question is how far you are willing to travel, repeatedly, for the care involved.

Anyone with access requirements — mobility, sensory or communication — should mention them at booking. Registered providers are legally required to make reasonable adjustments, and doing so is routine when the service knows before you arrive.

If this location is not convenient, the nearest comparable alternative is Victoria Hospital Sidmouth, roughly 5.2 miles away — the nearby providers section below lists more options with distances.

Experienced patients ask better questions. For a hospital, this shortlist reliably separates strong services from average ones:

1. Who exactly will provide my care, and what is their professional registration?
2. What are the realistic timescales — first appointment, results, and treatment?
3. What will this cost in total, and what could add to that figure later?
4. What are the alternatives, including doing nothing for now?
5. How do you handle problems out of hours, and who do I contact?
6. What should I expect to feel or notice afterwards, and what would be a warning sign?
7. How will you keep my GP informed, and what gets written to my record?
8. If my needs change, how quickly can the plan change with them?

A good service treats this list as routine; defensiveness anywhere on it tells you something the inspection report may not.

CQC registration is the legal baseline for operating a service like this one; the value for you sits in the public record built on top of it — inspection reports, ratings and enforcement history.

The CQC inspects against five questions — is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led — and publishes its findings. For Ottery St Mary Hospital, the registered provider is Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The official CQC record for this location carries the current registration status, ratings where awarded, and every published inspection report.

The rating scale runs Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate — and context matters when reading it. Good is the expected standard, not a consolation prize; Outstanding is genuinely rare and usually reflects exceptional leadership culture rather than better equipment. A Requires Improvement rating deserves a closer look at which of the five questions dragged it down: a responsive shortfall (waiting times, complaint handling) is a different risk from a safe shortfall (medicines, staffing). Some location types are inspected without ratings at all, so an unrated service is not a warning sign in itself.

Reading a report efficiently: start with the well-led section (it predicts everything else), then safe. Look at the direction of travel across the last two inspections rather than a single snapshot, and treat "requires improvement" with a credible action plan differently from the same rating with repeated findings. If anything in a report concerns you, raising it with the service directly is both fair and revealing — well-run providers answer plainly.

Care in England comes with legal rights attached — most people only discover them when something goes wrong, which is precisely the wrong moment to start learning.

You are entitled to informed consent — a genuine explanation of options, risks and alternatives before treatment, in language you understand, with interpreters provided where needed. You have a right of access to your own records under UK GDPR, free of charge in most cases, within a month of asking. And under the Equality Act, providers must make reasonable adjustments for disability — from step-free access to communication formats — as a legal duty, not a favour.

If care falls short, complain in stages: first to the provider itself (every registered service must operate an accessible complaints procedure and respond within a defined timescale); then, for NHS-funded care, to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman — or for privately funded care, to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service where the provider subscribes. Local authority-funded social care complaints escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Two further channels matter. The CQC does not investigate individual complaints, but it wants to hear about poor care — reports feed directly into inspection planning, and you can tell it anything in confidence via its website. And if you need help making a complaint about NHS care, every area has a statutory independent advocacy service that is free to use; your council can point you to the current provider.

Ottery St Mary has 10 CQC-registered healthcare providers in total, of which 1 are hospitals — so genuine comparison is possible before you commit. The full Ottery St Mary directory and the local hospitals listing let you shortlist alongside this profile.

Of the 1 hospitals serving Ottery St Mary, the right one depends on the procedure. Compare CQC ratings at the service level (surgery, outpatients) rather than the headline; ask for the hospital's volume in your procedure; and check practicalities that shape recovery — physiotherapy availability, visiting, and how post-discharge questions are handled. For NHS-funded care, compare waiting times through your GP's e-referral options before defaulting to the nearest name.

Where is Ottery St Mary Hospital located?

Ottery St Mary Hospital is at Keegan Close,Ottery St Mary, EX11 1DN, in Ottery St Mary (South West region). The full postcode works in any sat-nav or journey planner.

How do I contact Ottery St Mary Hospital?

Call 01404816000 during opening hours. The practice also runs a website with an enquiry route. For funding-route questions (NHS availability, fees), asking directly by phone gets the current position.

Is Ottery St Mary Hospital regulated?

Yes — it is registered with the Care Quality Commission (location ID RH834) under the registered provider Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Registration is a legal requirement for delivering this type of care in England and brings ongoing inspection.

What are the nearest alternatives to Ottery St Mary Hospital?

The closest comparable providers are Victoria Hospital Sidmouth (5.2 miles), Honiton Hospital (5.5 miles), Exmouth Hospital (10.1 miles). Each has a full profile on this site with contact details and registration information.

Can I choose this hospital for NHS treatment?

For most planned (non-emergency) care, yes — the NHS gives you a legal right to choose any hospital with an NHS contract for your treatment at the point of GP referral, including independent hospitals. Ask your GP to compare waiting times when making the referral.

What should a self-pay surgery quote include?

A fixed price covering consultant and anaesthetist fees, theatre, implants, nursing, standard imaging, follow-up and a defined complications policy. Anything quoted "from" a price, or excluding the anaesthetist, is not a comparable quote.

How do I check a consultant's credentials?

Search the GMC online register for specialist registration, ask the hospital for the consultant's annual volume in your procedure, and look for subspecialty fit. Any reluctance to answer volume questions is itself an answer.

Does Ottery St Mary Hospital treat NHS or private patients?

The public register does not record funding routes, and many providers serve both. Phone the service for the current position — NHS availability in particular changes as capacity fills and reopens, so today's answer beats anything a directory can cache.

Where does the information on this page come from?

Core details — name, address, registration, provider and specialisms — come from the Care Quality Commission register (Open Government Licence v3.0) and are refreshed monthly. Guidance sections reflect how services of this type work across the UK. Always confirm time-sensitive details such as opening hours directly with the provider.