Kensington Wing at C&W

[Celia76]

I'm having my third cesarian in Feb and this will be our last baby!!

We have an NHS section booked, and although the postnatal care I've had both times at Chelsea & Westminster hasn't been awful, it hasn't been great either (pretty typical for NHS post-natal wards I think).

....so, we are thinking about going private after the birth. I've emailed the Kensington Wing, but have yet to hear back from them. In the meantime does anyone know the cost per night in the Kensington Wing? We don't have insurance so will be self-funding.

Thanks in advance.

If you have a vaginal delivey then it's £850 per night and £950 per night for caesarean delivery. However these are extra night costs and are on top of the other fees you pay, which vary.

Off the top of my head a consultant will usually charge a flat rate for package of care (mine charges £6500 regardless of whether it's vaginal or caesarean delivery). On top of that you have the Kensington wing/hospital fees. For a vaginal delivery they're about £3800 (including first night's stay) and just over £4k (I think), again including the first night's stay. You can have midwife led care which is cheaper as obviously you don't have specific consultant care or his or her separate fees. If you need a consultant at your delivery (vaginal or caesarean) you'll get whoever is on call at that particular time. I think this comes in at around £7k or £8k but you'd need to check that as I'm not entirely sure about those costs.

I've calculated that if I have a caesarean delivery then I'm probably looking at spending £13k (gulp) and probably £10k plus for a vaginal delivery. Not cheap.

One option is to have NHS care for antenatal and delivery and then pay to stay in the private ward for the postnatal period. It would be much cheaper as you're looking at £850 per night following a vaginal delivery. The only downside is that there is no guarantee of a room on the private ward. If it's full with private patients then you'd have to stay on the NHS postnatal. The Kensington Wing is a 16 bed ward though so you stand a good chance, although the private postnatal option is quite popular so you may find that any spare rooms do get booked up by NHS patients desperate to swerve the NHS postnatal ward.

Hope this helps.

Thanks kitstwins that's really useful.

I would be looking at just booking the room for the postnatal care, so £850 per night - I hoped to be able to book it in advance (if we decide to go private) as I aleady know my section date, but it makes sense that availability will depend on women who have booked to go private for the whole package.

Thanks again, very helpful!

Hi Celia,
I don't think you can book it in advance unfortunately as it's really on a 'any rooms spare and then first-come-first-served' basis unless you're a fully private patient. They won't offer any guarantees of a room unless you're a private patient. Also, if they suddenly have a rash of private patients going into labour early and need all the rooms (unlikely I would think but you never know...) then you would be moved off the ward. However, I don't think it does any harm to mention that you'd like to be in one postnatally. Maybe they'd flag it in your notes or something. And maybe you could ask to go and have a look round as well and speak to some of the staff there. Doesn't hurt I wouldn't have thought.

Good luck for Feb!

Thanks.

I've emailed the unit to ask what their policy is, not sure if I can pre-book a room now, on the understanding that if any 'private women' need it they'll get priority.

I'll let you know how I get on!

kitswins - just to update you - we did transfer to the kensington Wing after my section and I really recomend it! Care, food and room were all brilliant and my recovery was really fast and pain free.

It was a gamble switching from NHS to private, but it worked out, thanks for your help!

Hi Celia,

I did just that and it was approx. 1000 GBP per night. Like you this was a planned c-section for my last baby. All the antenatal care and the delivery was done at C&W on the NHS.

Once I was in recovery after the C-section I got my husband to call the Kensington Wing and book me a room. I took a risk as there was no guarantee there would be a room available, and you cannot just pre-book a room.

The risk paid off and I had a great 48 hours to recover in a lovely private room. I was only one of two women on the Kensington wing for the duration of my stay.