When i went there for my booking appointment at 12W, the midwife told me you will have three appointment here (12,28,34) and for the rest you should go to your local midwifes;
But when I called my local midwife unit, they said as I am not delivering in their local hospital they can not give me any services!! And I should call back the hospital and tell them that! When I called the hospital again explaining this, they said oh yes, this has to do with money and how NhS paya hospitals, etc. but unless you want to change your hospital now we can't do anything about it and we don't give you midwife service either!!! They told me You can go to your gp if you want!!!
Nazly, this smells like it is quite frankly bullshit, as I'm in this situation with my local services being in a completely different authority to the hospital I am attending. Its about 40 - 45mins drive (there are at least 5 or 6 hospitals that are closer!).
I am seeing my local community midwife based at my GP as advised by BOTH the hospital and the local community services. In fact the hospital actively encouraged me to do so, so I had someone more local but said they could provide the same service at the hospital if I preferred! It does seem that it is unusual to use this combination of hospital/local services but not unheard of. My local midwives have had fun finding the right part of my notes and have simply said they don't use this hospital's system very often, so they take a little longer to check them properly.
Neither seem to have the slightest problem with it; both said it was better for me to have certain appointments with one and certain with the other which is a bit of a pain and a bit confusing, but its manageable. I've just had to book a couple myself with the relevant place as and when I'm supposed to (but most of the time the next one at that location has been arranged during the current one at that location).
To illustrate the point, about just how fine they are with the situation, I am higher risk for diabetes so my local midwife phoned the hospital during one with her (from the number in my notes as she wasn't familiar with the procedure at the other hospital) to arrange the hospital appointment to ensure it was done as she thought it was very important for this particular test due to my risk factors. I have also been offered access to additional services at both hospitals if I wanted to go to them (ante-natal classes etc) - entirely my choice.
Not one question has been raised about it, nor one eyebrow lifted. If there was a problem with how the NHS pays then, I simply wouldn't be able to do this would I? Whether there are agreements in place between the two authorities which don't exist everywhere else I don't know, but its always been my understanding that you could chose to access maternity services of your choice and were not restricted by which area you lived in, hence I didn't have any concerns about doing this myself. (Information that was given to me by my GP).
I would try and investigate further in your shoes.