Newham Hospital East London - Any Experiences or views pls?

[trixietie]

Hi

I live in East London and am in early first pg. I have just been referred to Newham Hospital. I'm new to the area so really don't know much about the hospital, does anyone have any experience, good or bad and if it's all bad can anyone recommend an alternative? I really don't know what my options are and my GP wasn't as helpful as I would have liked?

Slightly different question but do i have to go with the hospital they chose for me or can i go anywhere?

Thanks
T

[Aubergenie]

I live in the area and have been wondering the same thing. It didn't do at all well in the recent report on maternity units which worried me. However, I have been in their Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit a number of times over the last few months for miscarriage last year and today for an early scan, and that was fine. It can be very busy and you have to wait for ages, but the care has been good with plenty of follow up after the miscarriage. This time around they're giving me a follow up reassurance scan every couple of weeks. I was surprised to read on this site that some women in other places with a history of miscarriage haven't been offered this. I've no idea if the EPAU is an indication of their other services though.

I think the nearest other hospital (to me anyway) is Whipps Cross in Walthamstow and I've heard two horror stories about them recently.

[trixietie]

Thanks for that!

I had a m/c last year and went to St.Thomas's and had no follow up at all. I'm really getting paranoid and worried now (prob unecessarily) and have another month to wait before midwife and scan appt.

whereabouts are you? i'm in royal docks and exactly 8 weeks pg...and starving again

[pertelote]

Hi ladies, I'm booked into Newham too. I'm sixteen weeks and though I'm a first timer (so nothing to compare it with) I found them helpful and friendly at my booking in and scan, certainly more so than my GP! Didn't have to wait very long either time (appointments first thing in the morning which might have helped) except for blood taking the first time (for the combined test/scan the midwives did it themselves rather than sending me along to phlebotomy).

As far as I can tell one doesn't really have very much choice as to hospital - not that any of the others in East London come out brilliantly in the tables! My GP seemed to think that I'd get better antenatal care if I stayed 'in borough' (Whipps Cross would have been Walthamstow, I live in Stratford which is Newham) but if your GP has a midwife associated with the practice it might matter less... just a guess.

Maybe see you there sometime! Good luck with everything.

[pedilia]

My friend had her daughter in Newham 9 months before I had DS1, she was not happy with her care.
I asked to be referred to Royal London at Whitechapel and I had my son there instead.

[josiefc]

my partner and his ex-wife had their son there and had the most awful time. HOWEVER this was 8 years ago, so obviously things could have changed. But he wasn't allowed to stay with her for the birth (first they had heard of it!) and also she was left alone all night - she'd been admitted in the early hours of the morning - and nobody would do anything for her until the staff change in the morning.

As I said, this was a while back, so things could be different now, but for their second child they wouldn't even consider it and they both still get quite upset talking about it.

[Aubergenie]

Oh dear, it doesn't sound good does it. You're right though Josiefc, things could have changed in that time. Pedilia how long ago did your friend have her baby at Newham General?

Trixiet I'm near Stratford and Newham is definitely the closest to me.

Anyone else out there who's had a baby there recently?

[PurlyQueen]

What about Homerton Hospital in Hackney? I've heard good things about the care there.

[Sanwi]

yes - me! i had my dd in newham in december and am sorry to say it was really not good. i had a long labour and a c section so had the full newham experience

i went in feeling quite positive, after ante natal classes and a hospital tour, which had put my mind at rest about newham being bad. i knew they were busy and the midwives overworked, but i didn't expect it to be like it was. i'm not the fussy type but my experience included (this is going to be looong):

1 - DH having to demand something to clean the bath with for hydrotherapy in early labour - he was told "oh, it's cleaned daily, don't worry". how about cleaned between users? my waters had gone so there was an infection risk

2 - being given an internal exam by the midwife before active labour and her using the paper and plastic packaging from her latex gloves to mop up my waters which were leaking

3 - no pillow or blanket on my bed while they kept me in (slightly raised blood pressure) for 2 nights waiting for active labour

4 - the grumpiest set of midwives in the entire universe - frankly all suffering from a severe attitude problem and pure rudeness. eg I had a canula inserted ready for antibiotics - it was done badly and made my hand swell. DH had to threaten to formally complain before anyone would do the 5 second job of removing it and giving me a new one

5 - filthy, filthy toilets - not good when you're in labour and every contraction makes you need to wee and one of your hands is out of action due to canula making it swell up

6 - c section recovery was in some sort of storage room surrounded by boxes - not that i cared much at the time but very strange, with hindsight

7 - i was turfed out 36 hours after the CS - normal hospital stay is 5 days. don't get me wrong, i was glad to leave, but it was handled very badly, with the midwife basically shouting at me to get in the shower and get the dressing off my CS incision so she could look at it and get me discharged. At this point i could barely walk, and needed DH's help. he wasn;t there, so she forced me to go on my own.

8 - i don't know the procedure in other hospitals, but in newham they mix women who are not in active labour (ie 3cm+ dilated) with those who have just had their babies on the same ward. this means no peace whatsoever for anyone, as their understandably very loud groans set the new babies off crying.

There were a couple of good points, to be fair, which were that i got an epidural pretty much as soon as i asked for it, which i've heard isn't the case everywhere. Also, the (male) midwife during active labour was very good and was there a lot of the time. And the c section itself was really well carried out and healed well. and the operating theatre was completelt spotlessly clean. Ante natal care was also fine, but i can't comment much on that as i had a very easy pregnancy (duly followed by the labour from hell!)

BUT for the next baby i would seriously consider going elsewhere and i live within walking distance of newham, which is why i chose it in the first place. i was given the choice of there, whipps cross, homerton or the royal london

sorry if it's not really what you'd want to hear, but i really had to share my experience - i went in with a totally open mind, not expecting much, but it really was a case of hoping for the best and actually getting the worst.

[Aubergenie]

Blimey Sanwi, the Full Newham Experience sounds horrible! A friend of mine is due to have her baby in Homerton in April, I'll be interested to see how she gets on. My sister had one child at Homerton and one at Whipps quite a number of years ago and both experiences were fine, but I know two people who had horrible experiences at Whipps within the last year. It makes me wonder whether I should opt for a home birth instead...

[Sanwi]

yes, unfortunately it really was horrible, which is a shame as i had previously thought maybe newham got picked on unfairly as being bad. and fair enough, they really are overrun - the maternity unit was built over 25 years ago for half the number of births as they are getting now. but having a decent attitude towards your patients and a bit of cleanliness are not too much to ask. if DH hadn't been there to basically demand help when i needed it, it would probably have been even worse. when you're having contractions, you're not up to much in terms of complaining! i certainly saw other women without vocal husbands like mine getting treated pretty shabbily.

i was in there 48 hours before DD was born, so saw a whole range of midwives, and i would say there were about 3 nice ones in total, out of perhaps 20. they really stood out and clearly loved their jobs, but were so outnumbered by the others, it was like a drop in the ocean. i had a taster of this during late pregnancy with my midwife appointments - i never saw the same midwife and all those i saw were surly. but i hoped the ones actually in the hospital would be different. unfortunately they weren't.

i should mention - they do have a midwife-led unit there as well, which is new and clean, but you can only give birth there if there is zero risk. it has 5 or 6 rooms, which have a sofa and tv and no bed, so you're kept mobile, which is great. there is also one water birthing pool there, which is used on a first come first served basis - if it is free, you can have it in early labour for hydrotherapy or active labour for a water birth. but you can't book it in advance.

i was not allowed to go there because my blood pressure was very slightly raised during labour, although it was totally normal throughout pregnancy. they don't offer epidurals there - just gas and air and pethidine. if you need an epidural, you get moved to the labour ward.

if i had to do it again, i would try and look at the maternity units early on - i tried to do some research, but it's almost impossible to compare them without visiting them. i admit it, i was lazy, but then i kind of hoped newham would be ok, especially as it is so close to my house.

i feel terrible picking fault, as generally i love living in newham, despite it not being london's most gorgeous borough, but the treatment i got was terrible.

[needahand]

Hi Ladies

I used to live in Newham and my only experience of it was when my husband had a really bad allergic reaction to something and his face and fingers started to swell up. I am no doctor, but I know (from my dad who is in the medical profession) that this is very dangerous and a crticial emergency (as basically some of your organs can fail).

In Newham hospital, we had to wait 6 hours to see the triage nurse at A&E and another 7 to see a doctor, we spent the night there when with a bit of bad luck, my DH could have died.

At the time Newham hospital was the WORST hospital in the country (about 4-5 years ago). A year later I found out I was pregnant and there was absolutely no way I would have chanced giving birth there (which was a good thing as my birth was very difficult as it was)...so we moved to another part of London.

You have the right to chose another hospital, I think there are some AIMS or NICE guidelines on this. Also if you are too worried, perhaps you should consider a home birth?

[trixietie]

Ladies
Thanks so much for all your stories, i don't imagine they were easy to re-tell.

SIL is a nurse and she hadn't heard great things about newham (but doesn't yet know i'm pg..) and even knew nurses who didn't want to work there, but wanted other opinions.
I had told my GP that i wasn't keen on going there but was also told that i wouldn't get treated as well if i went out of borough. I'm not familiar with the UK medical system and don't understand why i can't chose where i want to go. I'll see if i have more luck with my midwife and will def check out the midwife led unit but quite confused.
Moving is not an option...we've just bought a lovely new flat!

Thanks again!

[Aubergenie]

Oh dear, this is depressing.

I have to say that I ended up in the A&E dept during my miscarriage last November and it was fine. They saw me pretty quickly and rushed me through when it was clear that things were getting serious. I had to stay in and unfortunately they couldn't get me on the gynae ward as there weren't any beds, so I ended up staying in a mixed temporary ward which wasn't very nice, but I think that could probably happen in any number of hospitals on a Friday night.

I go to the dermatology dept on a regular
as an outpatient, and that's always fine too. I think it must be the Maternity department in particular that's overstretched. But as you say, Sanwi, that doesn't excuse the general surly attitude!! It may be another working day for them, but it's a life changing event for patient.

Newham is one of the youngest boroughs in terms of the age of its population and they must all be having babies!

I wonder whether Homerton is any better? I'm going to start another thread to find out.

[Aubergenie]

I've just done a search on Homerton and the general feedback is pretty good. Post-natal care doesn't sound great, but that sounds like par for the course in a lot of London hospitals. It might be worth enquiring about it if you're anxious, Trixie. I may well do the same.

[elkiedee]

I'm surprised by your GP's response. My GP indicated that it was entirely up to me. I think I was quite lucky though as she generally was lovely towards me, and was supportive when I was a bit down afterwards.

I'm not in Newham however.

There isn't actually a hospital in my borough, there are two just over the borders. I don't know if that makes a difference, because most of the women I've met having babies round here seem to have been given the choice on that at least. The nearest, North Mid, is Enfield and the second is the Whittington, Islington - it's near the borders with both Haringey and Camden. I went with the Whittington because it's much easier by public transport from home and work - one bus or tube respectively. It turned out that the community midwives do some antenatal appointments round the corner from me, as well.

I've heard good and bad stories from most hospitals, tbh, but I hope you can find some sort of reassurance.