How to check a private vein clinic before you pay

Registration is not optional

A clinic carrying on regulated healthcare activity in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission. CQC's guidance says service providers must register, that CQC registers the regulated activity being carried on rather than the service type or profession, and that it is the legal entity carrying on the activity that registers rather than the location where it happens (CQC, page last updated 29 January 2025). Search the clinic on CQC's public directory and read the inspection report rather than the testimonials (find care services).

Outside England, check Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland or the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority in Northern Ireland.

Check who actually performs the procedure

NICE describes a vascular service as a team of healthcare professionals who have the skills to undertake a full clinical and duplex ultrasound assessment and provide a full range of treatment. That is a useful benchmark to hold a clinic against: ask whether they can offer all of endothermal ablation, foam sclerotherapy and surgery, or only the one they sell.

Doctors practising in the UK appear on the General Medical Council's public register, which sets out registration status, licence to practise, and specialist register entry with the specialty named. Look up whoever would treat you there before booking. Separately, the Private Healthcare Information Network, a government-mandated independent organisation publishing information on the safety, quality and costs of private healthcare, lets you search consultants and hospitals.

The questions that matter most in this particular market

1. Ask whether a duplex ultrasound assessment is done before any treatment is recommended, and who performs it.
2. Ask which of the NICE-recommended options they offer, and why they are proposing the one they are proposing for you.
3. Ask what a second session costs, given NICE advises that more than one session may be needed and that new veins can develop after treatment.
4. Ask for the price in writing, stating clearly whether it covers one leg or both, and what follow-up is included.

Be wary of any clinic that quotes a price before a scan, presses for a decision in the room, or offers a discount that expires. None of that is how a clinical decision should be reached, and this site will never tell you which clinic is best, because we are not in a position to know.