registered nurse

theatre practitioner

healthcare assistant

administrator

physiotherapist

Circle-Health-Group

This organisation capitalises on the NHS collapse by positioning itself as the only viable alternative for patients trapped in year-long public waitlists. But make no mistake - the private healthcare model here is not rooted in compassion. It is meticulously engineered to monetise patient vulnerability and ignore those who cannot pay. Internally, NHS patients are deprioritised and even dismissed - staff are explicitly instructed to “fling them on,” since, as one training session revealed, “there’s no money there.” Meanwhile, every detail from a private caller is logged and tracked for monetisation and reporting.

Patients are not individuals here; they are revenue units. Key performance indicators are built around booking quotas, meaning even patient health is colour-coded for conversion.

The hypocrisy runs deeper. While Circle Health Group publicly claims “humanitarian values” and “selfless compassion,” the internal culture tells a different story. Operational practices deny basic flexibility to employees. Holidays are frequently rejected unless they serve business needs - even personal family milestones like baby showers can be refused due to call volume demands. Staff are permitted to sell back annual leave - but only after completing one full year of service. Until then, any unused time is simply lost.

The call centre in Glasgow - a deliberate choice due to the lower wage expectations and socioeconomic conditions - operates as a transactional factory line. It is staffed predominantly with underqualified managers promoted through tenure rather than skill, young individuals with no prospects, and employees who have no choice but to stay due to financial commitments. The environment thrives on compliance and mediocrity. Independent thinkers or educated professionals are quickly alienated or leave voluntarily.

Despite widely varying workloads and target difficulty across teams, Head Office recently standardised salaries across the board - an insult to those in high-pressure departments taking constant calls versus others who remain idle for extended periods. It sends a clear message: “Just pay them all - they won’t even notice.”

The culture is built on cliques, fear, and survival. Employees convince themselves the wages are sufficient, unaware they are sacrificing autonomy for marginal returns. Many are stuck - burdened by car finance, bills, or childcare - and conditioned to feel grateful for the scraps.

Employment contracts are drafted to protect the company’s image at all costs. Employees are bound by clauses that suppress whistleblowing or criticism. Dissent, even indirect, is met with swift silencing. The company doesn’t ask for loyalty - it demands submission.

Circle Health Group will continue to generate billions annually - not due to innovation or patient-first values, but because the public healthcare system is collapsing and patients have nowhere else to go. If you’re considering working here, especially in the Glasgow call centre, ask yourself: do you value your time, your dignity, or your future?

Only associate with this company if you’re a patient. If you’re an employee, you’re a replaceable cog - one that doesn’t even need to be educated. If a street-trained rat could navigate their systems, it would be hired tomorrow.

It’s hard to believe that in 2018 a company can behave in any way it sees fit with no repercussions, however, Circle have made it into an art form.

Management - what management? One young “manager” in his second admin role with no management training overseen by a voiceless hospital director brought in after his predecessor jumped ship following the Circle sell out to an investment company.

Narcissism is rampant - only by cosying up to the right person will you find yourself with a job offer, but beware, the job offer can be withdrawn at any time for no reason - it’s “just business” apparently. 

And not forgetting “the finger of doom” - beware of anything/everything you ever do, as when something goes wrong (which is frequently) the “management” will be looking for someone to blame.

Wages? Well, you’ll earn more in the NHS, so definitely don’t go to Circle expecting an improvement in your circumstances.

The patient? Who? Sorry, in all the empire building and finger pointing the patient is usually lost and, who cares? If they’re NHS they most certainly are not deemed worthy of any consideration from anyone at Circle! If they’re private, don’t worry, the consultant or his secretary will shout over any problems and get them to the head of the queue for treatment - Circle is a private hospital after all, despite the 70% NHS workload that keeps them afloat. 

Therefore, in all good conscience, I cannot possibly recommend Circle as an employer, nor in fact would I recommend it as a private hospital - stick to tried and tested ones such as The Bath Clinic, where the patient most definitely does come first, every time, and the staff are simply outstanding.

With the diminishing business from an overseas referral in the private healthcare market, there is a need to be innovative to continue to serve the local communities to attract patients, staff and consultants in the UK. CCH is motivating staff to improve the culture. This will help to improve the services provided by the hospital. There is also a plan for financial input for products, services, and equipment with regards to IT improvement by management. This will give them a competitive advantage in the healthcare market. The service standards will improve with the CQC standards with intensive work done to meet compliance for more patient referral and will become a hospital of choice for the area. More specialised training is part of the improvement plan to add value to the service areas. This will give the departments an opportunity to be creative and innovative in their specialised areas of work. The salary scales are in review to become competitive in the healthcare market attracting more skilled staff and consultants. The new plan from management to improve the electronic platform can change the way the operations are managed. This will change the reaction time and gain on opportunities that will add benefits to the bottom line.  Improvement in electronic communication systems and reporting can be advantageous for the reduction in cost for off-site meetings. The time gained from the improved electronic platform can be used for more value-added task and opportunities. There is a quality improvement programme to have a long-sighted visionary to improve the standards to bypass the CQC requirements and maintenance of those standards to be the norm of the day. There is a plan by management to get CCH to Outstanding Rating - Hospital Group of choice in the UK.

Arriving at 6am greeted with that days patient list. Following with checking all medical gas supplies, setting up for functions/meetings. Dealing with and reporting any problem that occurred over night. i.e. floods, electrical issues, and general cleaning.   
during this period, I would start to receive inpatients via pager.
once collected patient, I would transport them to their rooms, with their luggage whilst keeping a warm and friendly attitude, when arriving at their room, I would proceed to inform them of the details of our fire safety procedure, and general information, and deal with all patient enquires/requests. I would then hand over to the nurses. during the day I would be paged to various departments that need any help, I would also be involved with car parking, waste management, which I would receive via radio. I was also responsible for ordering and often manually changing all gas cylinders and arranging disposal. I was also responsible for security. After lunch, i would be dealing with the outpatients, and postal management. With all the roles and responsibilities I was required to do E-learning online, which consisted of at least 35 different modules throughout the year this was repeated every year. These were all mandatory

 I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the hospital, all of the staff and management were very supportive, and a true joy to be around, I learnt a lot about self respect, communication, responsibility, customer services, protocol and procedures along with general hospital knowledge. The hardest part was leaving PMH. Leaving was due to moving borough, to better mine and my families lives.
I enjoyed all my time with all the staff and patients. It was a pleasure.

I've not long been part of the Circle family, but I've been here long enough now to know that it was the best decision I made joining the company. I thoroughly enjoy everything about this hospital and the "good vibes" that it gives off. The team I work with are amazing and we all fit like a puzzle. The staff here are so friendly, welcoming, helpful and always have smiles on their faces (even though maybe some days I'm sure they don't feel like it!). Everyone mucks in together to achieve and it is very team orientated. I've never felt so much part of a team as I do now! (there is no I in team!). Senior management are approachable, friendly and if you have a concern or issue they are keen to help you sort it out. Don't get me wrong there are always going to be the usual "politics" in the Healthcare industry, however having worked in the past for another private health company, the difference in the two is hardly worth mentioning! 

I enjoy the challenges of my job and all of the different things that I'm able to get involved in. It is a pleasure to come to work everyday in such a beautiful building with fantastic facilities and fantastic people. It is a fast paced environment with a transparency amongst senior management and leaders, whereby a previous organisation I had worked for had a very closed door policy despite stating the opposite! It felt that they liked to keep everything separate and not involve staff, whereas it is the complete opposite here and if anything networking and social company involvement amongst staff is encouraged! 

Well done Circle!

You are given a 5 week training course and I was unable to complete mine due to starting college, I was told this was okay and I done 3 weeks training. Because of my lack of training I was told I would have someone sit next to me on my first day, and on my first day there was no one to be seen. I started to take calls and I assumed I learned everything I needed to know. They didn’t notice until last minute that I required support but by this time there were already newer staff, and that’s when I started to see faces, and get offered support. It made me feel embarrassed the fact that the newer people were doing better but this is because they had lots of support from the beginning. I already had lots of issues that they just started to pick up on and called me out numerous times in front of my team making me look and feel stupid. I asked to start working from home and no one helped me get started, working from home meant I could take on more shifts, learn more and fix my mistakes but no one assisted me whilst the rest of my team were all working from home. I felt forgotten about from the moment I started and the support I was given were from people who made it obvious that they’re too busy for me and complained all the time about their job responsibilities (one of them helping me) my experience here had left me upset and annoyed at the company. I was told it was basically my responsibility to seek support in which I did but this support only consisted of how to meet my targets and not how to stop the mistakes I was making.

Luckily I’m no longer there. I left on good terms before you think I’m a disgruntled ex employee. Having worked here for over 4+ years I can honestly say don’t do it. The wage is shockingly low for a private healthcare company. Since I was there the question about the wage going up always pops up in surveys. Same answer every year....they’re looking into it and then they actually tell you that compared to other places we actually pay more(lies as of now it’s national minimum wage). 

No loyalty for long standing members of staff. If I was to walk through the doors in 6 months time I’d be on the same wage and holiday allowance I was in when I left. Although from when I was leaving they’re only hiring people under the age of 25 as they don’t have to pay them as much. 

Monthly bonus? Good luck they always find a way of cheating you out of it! Promotion? What’s that? very limited chance of it happening so don’t hold out hope. The managers pals get the job first.

The company use to be all about patients and the staff used to matter but now the staff are just numbers(easily replaceable) and have turned into drones being made to upsell and obtain pretty much every single detail of a customers life otherwise you lose points on your call scoring. 

There was a bit of turmoil with a dodgy top boss last year and I still think the company is trying to rebuild from that but that is no excuse for the drastic changes recently.

So Circle has been through a lot of change and have invested a lot of money in a lot of sites. They have won awards for their investment and been nominated for prizes etc.
From the outside, and for some people, this is the reality and on the surface, on a good day/week, I'm sure this is true. This, however, is not my lived experience.
A culture of doing as little as possible and waiting for systems/equipment to fail before rectifying is the norm. 'We haven't had a problem so far, so lets leave it' attitude. 
People surveys profess to a happy workforce, when we know all people surveys are weighted to the positive and there is no option to comment/rate the middle management only your line manager and the board.
As for middle management, box ticking is the name of the game I'm afraid. Let's make sure we have done everything we have to at the least, and that will do. Is it relevant to what is needed, that doesn't matter, there is a box to tick so tick it. If there isn't a box, lets ignore it.
Progression opportunities - None
Professional development - None, especially if it costs money.
Senior leadership - barely any, and if they do take notice, its with empty promises.
A lot of folks like working there, maybe it's the department I'm in that's particularly bad, maybe it's the site I'm at, who knows?!
I'm looking for work elsewhere and won't look back when I'm gone. I wish no ill to anybody but there is a lot of scope for improvement.

Where do I even begin… First of all, management and some staff are extremely unhelpful and biased. Racist, political, and rude remarks are passed around amongst some colleagues and when brought up to management, I was told to suck it up or that they didn’t mean it and it was just a joke. Second, hostile environment to work in, the only reason to why I got through all these past years in this position was because of some but very few of my colleagues who are helpful and kind. 

Third, favouritism is a huge part of the problem in this department. The most inefficient, rudest, and CHILDISH person can somehow be praised for their good work and named as a good prime example for others to learn from. Basically, regardless of your performance and behaviour in this place, as long as you’re well-liked by the management, you can get away with almost anything whatsoever. 

Lastly, there is absolutely no scope in progression in this department. If you are looking for a career growth, don’t even bother trying in this place, it is an absolute waste of time as once again, unless you can somehow sway the management in your favour, you would stand no chance. It does not matter if you maintain a good reputation, behaviour, and performance in your role, if you are not one of the favourites, you will definitely be overlooked for progression. 

Overall warning keep wits about you.
One to many management heads and titles with little responsibility. 

Lazy culture. Unfortunately the usual negatives. Again unfortunate as working with patience is brilliant.

Little to no training. Pushed to do e/learning without the practical side being implemented correctly.

Incorrectly put in vulnerable positions without you’re own knowledge. Patience left in extreme vulnerability with little staff

**Advance experience would be an advantage to withstand on you’re own values also including there own values** 

Staff aren’t trustworthy. 
Will be pushed to you're limits. 
You’re own patience will be extremely tested 
Long hours 
Little breaks that regularly missed when not enough staff.
No communication 

Management have all different opinions which bleeds into your working day and cause unnecessary issues and lowers staff moral throughout the shifts.

Lazy permanent workers that have a tendency to bully and undermine without any consequences. 

Be prepared for staff gossiping it hard to avoid and quite frequently are judged by you’re own peers.

Lack of support from management. No real discretion or trust. Hearing Biased opinions from experience.

Overall you will burn out. It’s very normal and accepted part of the business.

Good luck
 


Top Job Titles	Average salary
Registered nurse 1 salary reported	£12.79 per hour
Theatre practitioner 5 salaries reported	£37,167 per year
Healthcare assistant 56 salaries reported	£24,730 per year
Administrator 86 salaries reported	£24,752 per year
Physiotherapist 1 salary reported	£41,150 per year

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