Partially but not wholly tongue-in-cheek username
Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of what happens if PALS simply don't respond to a complaint? I've been waiting 8 months, my case manager often ignores my emails for months at a time. I've been told the hospital is under increased pressure - and that's the only reason I've been given. I know I can take my complaint to the Ombudsman, but they require you to have had a response from PALs first....
Background - I gave birth last summer and pretty much every part of my care was dreadful. The midwives on triage didn't believe I was in labour after I came in to be assessed when my waters broke and they spent almost the whole time we were there booking me in for an induction, even as my contractions were increasing. We were sent outside (at 2am) and I had to labour on a bench outside the hospital in the middle of the night while we waited for a lift home. I tried to get back into the building because I was worried and they sent me out again. Once I got home I phoned, had two contractions and threw up while on the phone, and was again told not to come back into the hospital. I then needed to push. By the time we got back to the hospital (an hour away in the car) I was fully dilated and probably had been for some time. I was also in shock and had almost totally disassociated. (I had lost a previous baby in the hospital the summer before and was under mental health care as a result of worries about the labour- a fact no-one seemed to realise because it seemed like almost no-one we interacted with throughout our stay had even glanced at my notes).
After pushing for five hours, I ended up having a forceps delivery which caused a hemorrhage (based on what a physio said about my scar, I think I had tearing on top of the episiotomy). I wasn't told about the hemorrhage at the time, and the cause wasn't recorded, which meant that when I had a Birth Afterthoughts appointment, the midwive got really worried and started telling me I would have to have a consultant led birth if I had another child - I've subsequently been told this isn't true. I've also subsquently found out the hsopital has much higher than average rates of postpartum hemorrhage. I have had a lot of problems in terms of recovery due to pelvic floor damage, with the biggest issue being mobility- it took about 5 months to be able to walk more than a few minutes without really significant discomfort.
And finally we were then left on an appalling postnatal ward for 4 days. My baby wouldn't latch at all at birth, and we waited 6 hours to have an actual midwife (as opposed to student) come to help. She said it was medically urgent to take formula at that point. The Birth Afterthoughts midwife said that was a lie - there was no evidence that was true, and the hospital policy is not to supplement until 24 hours. At this point, our breastfeeding support ended - only one other midwife came to help once in 4 days (but because we had been ticked off as "Reluctant Feeder" they wouldn't discharge us until we were basically begging to be released.)
The whole experience took a real toll physically and mentally, and financially (I ended up spending about £1000 on breast pumps, lactation consultants and private pelvic physio, and am back under the care of Talking Therapies again). I have real concerns about so many aspects of the hospital, to the extent that I don't see how I could have a second baby there. It just doesn't seem safe, and I worry so much about other women going through what I did.
I submitted a complaint at the start of this year, and 8 months later am still waiting for a response. I had an initial meeting after submitting my complaint with a fairly senior member of staff who was very sympathetic. She told me the hospital was on red staffing that night, and that about 30% of staff are very junior (with the implication being a lot of the people we interacted with weren't experienced enough to know what they were doing, which tbh just makes me feel worse)
I'm finding the lack of response really stressful but also don't know how to address it - if anyone has any ideas I'd be really interested.