Hospital catchments...

[ag123]

Do they exist?!
Again, please excuse multiple posts if you have read some of my others...
Just trying to work out my options. I know when I lived about a mile up the road I was offered UCLH. Now I have moved I think it is probably something like my 5th/6th closest hospital but du to previous birth trauma I am starting to think it might be the best place for me to be... Is there a distance cut-off though?

When I had dd1 in 2009 (pg confirmed/booked in 2008), there were catchment areas.

With dd2 in 2012 (pg confirmed/booking in 2011), I was allowed to choose where to go. I chose a hospital some 10m away because of its excellent facilities HTH!

No I'm pretty sure you have the right to choose any hospital for your maternity care.

Nope. Especially not in London. I'm with St Marys but live closer to 3 hospitals which are perfectly good but don't also have the heamotology team I was under, so asked my GP to go there. Most just let you self refer.

We choose any hospital we want.

My DD has just given birth in a different County because our local hospital is like a throwback from the 70's!

No questions were asked by the hospital but the community midwife made her annoyance known because apparently the paperwork is different

St Thomas' have a catchment as they're very popular. They do consider outside referrals if they're quiet. We had Ds1 there.

AFAIK you can have your baby wherever you like. My sisher lived near London but for various reasons chose to give birth in Nottingham.