thinking about moving hospitals...

[rubyred84]

how do I look into the other hospital? Its not that I have anything bad to say about the hospital I'm at, but this one has been highly recommended so feel I should at least look into it.

I'm having twins, so want to find out my options at the other place before making my decision, do I call the delivery suite and explain and ask to come in?

also, if I did move, I'm assuming all my scans and consultant apps would be at new hospital, not just the birth? sorry that is probably a stupid question but this is all new to me!!

thanks!!

Is it within the same nhs trust that you're currently booked into?

I don't think so, but I am right in between the 2....they are the 2 local ones everyone in this area goes to

I don't know how you look into it as such. Here if you wanted to move you would just self refer to the new place. I tried to do that at 30
Weeks and they refused to accept me for care as too late so it's not like you can definitely move. This was within the same group of hospitals. I think you probably want to consider your options and then choose what suits you best

I've just moved completely out of area so changed hospitals at 32 weeks with twins. I had asked my original hospital (Central London) a while ago what I would need to do as we were likely to move to be near to family (we knee it was a definite but didn't want to say anything in case this influenced care) and they basically said we would continue to be seen where we were and why would we want to change...um because I didn't want a two hour journey to get to appointments! They then suggested we call the senior midwife on call to ask them about what to do if we needed to be seen in an emergency and this is what I actually did. I got lucky the website for the new local hospital had the name of the matron and/or consultant midwife so I called and asked to speak to them directly which was remarkably easy. They advised what I would need to do to change care but I'll be honest I could not get them to sell their service for twins which was important to me as I was leaving a centre of excellence for twins. They would confirm they were happy to accept a twin oregnancy but wouldn't give me details about how many they see, who the named consultant for twins was or what their view was about vaginal vs section for twins. If you can't find the name of an equivalent person in the trust you want to move to, I'd either call the triage number and ask to speak to the senior midwife on call/midwife supervisor or failing that call one of the consultant secretaries and ask them for the name of th lead midwife and then go through switchboard to speak to them. You may find it is trickier because both trusts are nearby and your gp may only be able to refer you to one but if you can make the case for a medical transfer ie that your twins will be safer being managed in the other trust you might be able to manage it. I very much doubt they would let you go and have a look if you weren't a patient there as visits aren't always offered anymore even for patients who are booked in to a particular centre (my other option around here had a video online you could watch instead). Even if you could look around, I wouldn't use that as the sole basis for. Loving trusts as somewhere can look shiny and new but have real problems with staffing or,poor patient satisfaction which you won't necessarily see just by being shown round

It is possible but not as easy as you'd like it to be.

Oh and I should say I really wouldn't recommend moving as late as I have. It has not been an easy transition mainly because for example waiting a week for the initial appointment with the midwife meant a week kf hoping nothing happened that needed advice because I didn't know who to call as I wasn't in the local system at all. Then had a problem with different scan measurements which were due to different scanning machines and staff but initially looked like there was a serious problem with one of the twins.