NHS v private

[EllaSW]

If you decide mid-third trimester to go private for the delivery:

1. when and what do you tell your NHS hospital?
2. how is any follow-up (e.g. midwife checks) handled?

1. you tell them that this is what you are doing and where you will be giving birth as soon as you make the decision
2. private hospitals only manage the delivery. If it is straight forward. If you need intervention they are not equipped and you’ll be transferred back to NHS during labour. Post birth appointments are provided by the NHS. You would only got back to the private hospital if you ( as the patient) had any post birth complications like healing/ stitches etc all of which are at additional cost per appointment.

Thanks @StraightTalkingTina

On 1 the private consultant advises that you continue going to your nhs appointments in parallel, including midwife appointments

thanks re. 2. The private hospital we are considering sits within a large nhs hospital but a different nhs hospital to the one I’m booked at. Would I therefore be transferred to the nhs hospital attached to the private unit or back to the one I’ve been at all along?

Where you go would depend likely depend on bed availability and urgency of what’s required. I imagine they would aim for the one they are attached to.

why are you thinking about private delivery?

I think you are being disingenuous @StraightTalkingTina.

@EllaSW ask the private provision of where you are transferring.

FWIW dd will have private births but we are in London.

thats quite a random thought for you to have. But you are free to have it.

@ILoveKitsCan I ask what makes you think the other commenter is disingenuous?

@StraightTalkingTinajust a personal preference

Because it depends on the private hospital. Chelsea and Westminster for example and others in London, do provide post natal care if you chose and pay for it. They, and others, provide more than has been inferred. They are also part of a large NHS Hospital.

Why have you decided to switch at this late stage?

@ILoveKitsi want to have a c-section and prefer the idea of knowing who would do it.

It’s fine if you have a straight forward delivery but if you need urgent care you will be blue lighted into an NHS hospital anyway…..only it will take longer. With all of the terrible press about mother and baby units I understand why you are looking into private care. But at the end of the day it’s safer to be in the place where all of the emergency care staff you may need are on hand, and they are dealing with complicated deliveries every day. I was told all throughout my pregnancy to expect a straightforward birth, one of the midwives even suggested a home delivery, and I ended up in theatre. If I hadn’t been down the corridor and in the same building as the surgeons and anaesthetists there would have been very little chance of survival for both of us. The experience was very far from perfect but we left the hospital alive. I wish you the best of luck with whatever choice you make and hope that you have a straightforward recovery ❤️

Which if you read my post is what inferred.

Op it’s not just personal preference, it’s because You want a planned elective C section and you feel reassured having that in a private facility. And that’s fine. You can do that.

If your pregnancy is low risk and you have no co-morbidities then in theory everything would be fine and the risk of ‘emergency’ is reduced. You recover, you go home and carry on with NHS provision.

just be mindful that your baby is not aware of your plan…! You need to feel comfortable in any situation where your birth isn’t the one you planned. Baby comes early for example - are you comfortable with NHS?

Work through each of the possibilities and determine your birth plan for each then follow it for whichever event occurs….. you should also check the history for your local NHS if you have concerns about healthcare quality.

Bear in mind that all of the records of your blood group etc will be at your original NHS hospital. This will mean possible delays and extra tests should you require a transfusion. Which of course I hope you don't. This is an important but often overlooked part of ante natal care.

You should be supported to choose ELCS in any hospital

You wouldn't know your surgeon for any other procedure, does it really matter enough to change your plans so late, pay a fortune and you will barely know them anyway since it will be soon?

There's also no guarantee it will be your chosen surgeon - especially if you go into labour before your surgery date

Are you worried you won't be supported in the NHS? You absolutely should be, you are absolutely entitled to choose a surgical birth and should be fully supported with this choice

1. In my case (I’ve had 2 private births) the private consultant wrote to my NHS GP informing them that he was taking over my pregnancy care. I didn’t have to do anything.

2. After the birth and when I was ready to go home the hospital discharged me and the baby back to my local community midwives and the post natal care was no different than if I’d gone with the NHS, with the exception that I also went back to the consultant for a 6 week check.

It sounds like you’re looking at a delivery only package though? So 1 might work differently for you in that you’d continue having your NHS check ups since your consultant won’t be providing your ante natal care…

She can just tell them her blood type ahead of time when signing up for the private hosp

Yeah…no. My old boss went private and imagined herself drinking champagne etc. Baby arrived with complications, had to be rushed to an NHS hospital, she has a child with cerebral palsy. You want to be right where the medical care is in an emergency.

Re point 2 here there might be a criteria for you to be allowed on the private wing and in the unlikely event something goes wrong and you need closer monitoring you might find yourself on the NHS high dependency ward or similar for a while before they’re happy to transfer you. Worth checking. If it’s the baby that needs care then you can potentially still be on the private ward. DS was in special care on the NHS for a short while for observation whilst I was in the private wing at C&W and then he came back to join me when they were happy with him. Worth asking how all of those scenarios would work at the hospital you’re looking at.

Awful for your boss but since OP is sensibly looking at private maternity at an NHS hospital she isn’t at risk of needing to be transferred elsewhere and will have all the emergency care on site, should it be needed. When I had mine the private wing, theatres, NHS labour ward, NICU and SCBU were all on the same floor so the response time to an emergency would be the same whether you were private or NHS. I’m assuming your poor boss was somewhere like the Portland, which I wouldn’t ever consider exactly for that reason.

Thanks all. Really appreciate all the input. As @Bitzeesays we are only looking at the private wing of an NHS hospital and would request that all my records be transferred to the consultant there. My own NHS hospital would support an elective c-section so no issues there BUT of course dates can be rescheduled and you can’t know in advance who will do the procedure. That’s really why I’m considering going private for the delivery as I have had quite a difficult pregnancy without any continuity of care. The consultant I’m considering transferring to has been seeing me for intermittent private scans alongside the NHS care I’ve received.

@Minasamawas your boss in a private facility with no associated NHS facilities?

It's not that simple I'm afraid.

@TooOldToGiveAShinySplease could you elaborate as to why it’s not that simple?

Because the hospital will have to do a New Cross match and group and save. They will not just take your word for it, what your blood group is.

@InQuiresandplaceswheretheysingCan’t you just have that information transferred when you ask for your records to be transferred from the other hospital?

@EllaSW looking back, if you can't afford a birth plus an ante-natal and post-natal package, I'd be minded to have an elective NHS section and spend the money on a private post natal room and post natal care afterwards. Post natal care is abysmal and it may be more valuable to secure high quality there and have some domestic help for a few weeks while you recover.

@ILoveKitsit’s not about affordability but rather whether the care is actually better if you go private for delivery