Meet Marion, “The Granny” - Our Healthcare Assistant
“HSFC is a special place to be. It’s like home!”
At Harley Street Fertility Clinic, there’s one member of staff that is well-known with all of our patients - Marion, or “The Granny” as she is sometimes called.
After joining the clinic in 2012, she quickly established herself a support system for clients, there during both the good times and the bad.
That’s why we thought it’d only be right for her to be the first to feature on our new series of podcasts. Each month, we will be publishing new podcast episodes where we’ll be speaking to some members of our HSFC family. We hope these podcasts will give you an insight into what life is like at our clinic! Click below to listen to our first podcast episode; learn more about how Marion joined the clinic, what she enjoys most about working in a fertility clinic and her own special story relating to IVF. This preview blog serves as an overview of the topics discussed for those that are unable to listen.
Podcast part 1:
[audio mp3="https://hsfc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/MARION-part-1.mp3"][/audio]
Podcast part 2:
[audio mp3="https://hsfc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Marion-part-2.mp3"][/audio]
Marion joined our family in 2012 as a nurse, but now works as a healthcare assistant. “When I came for the interview, I wasn’t planning to work anymore,” Marion recalls. “But then, after the interview, I called my husband and told him I start tomorrow. “
“The interview told us a lot about Marion,” says Dr Venkat, the founder of the clinic. “I told her we are different, we are family. We put patients first and they are at the heart of everything we do. I could see that Marion’s and our ethos and ideas were very similar, so I asked her if she could start work the next day!”
When Marion started, there were only three other people in the Company: one other healthcare assistant, an andrologist and of course Dr Venkat. Since then, the team has grown considerably! We now have 5 specialists, 3 nurses, 3 embryologists, 3 healthcare assistants and 2 pharmacists, as well as our counsellors, acupuncturists, reflexologists, patient coordinators and receptionists.
Last year Marion decided to become a healthcare assistant. ”I don’t work in the theatre any more but I get to spend more time talking to patients, which I really enjoy,” says Marion who now works mostly with Dr Venkat, helping with the patients’ scans and blood tests.
When patients come for their pregnancy scans, Marion is usually there, along with Dr Venkat. “We both jump for joy when we see the foetal heartbeat,” says Dr Venkat. “There are also sad times when patients have to be given bad news, and we suffer with them,” she concludes.
Marion has witnessed both joyous and upsetting cases while working here, as might be expected in a fertility clinic. “We have patients who come and try so many times, and I feel I’d like to tell them now it’s time to consider another option and then, they try one more time and they have their baby,” Marion says. “We had one patient who tried many times to get pregnant with her own eggs and she couldn’t,” recalls Marion. “Then she decided to try with donor eggs and she fell pregnant”.
Marion feels the name “The Granny” suits her role here at Harley Street Fertility Clinic. “The patients get on with me that because I am like their mum, this is how they feel,” says Marion.
The rest of the family at Harley Street Fertility Clinic can attest to this too.
“Marion is lovely, she is really helpful,” says Poonam, one of our pharmacists.
“I met Marion on my first day here. She is an excellent nurse, a wealth of information. All patients love her. She is also a fantastic shoulder to cry on, both for staff members and for patients,” says Rachel, our Lead Nurse.
Dr Venkat calls Marion “her sister”. Marion herself says that the clinic “is a special place to be. It’s like home!”
At Harley Street Fertility Clinic, we are committed and dedicated to our patients, from the first moment they call us or set foot in our clinic until they no longer require our services. If you would like to get in touch with someone from our team, please do not hesitate to use our contact form, email us at info@hsfc.org.uk or give us a call on 020 7436 6838.
