I've heard a number of bad comments about the Royal Free and it has disturbed me, as I am currently under their care. My reason for choosing them was because I have other medical conditions and my consultant for that is at the same hospital, so I thought it was easier having intergrated care. I'd like to stick up for them a little. I've had a very complicated pregnancy so far and was admitted on a number of occasions. My experience of the Early Pregnancy Unit has been fantastic, I've had to have many emergency scans and they have been supportive patient and very helpful and very reassurring.
My antenatal appointments, I have not always seen the same midwife or doctor but the staff I have seen were fully upto date with my case and always have time to answer any of my questions and I've found them friendly and patient. Plus even though I haven't seen the same doctor or midwife. I have often seen them in reception and they have remembered my case and enquired on my progress.
I was recently admitted to the labour ward which so early in the pregancy was an extremely upsetting time, but while I found they seemed understaffed and often working under extreme stress, they did their best to be supportive my whole stay.
However I was there for a few days and observed a number of womens labour experiences, some of this echos many of the complaints of various other patients.
Ward 5, I think needs a serious mindset change. There appear to be a couple of midwives that have a very fixed idea of what their role and involvment is, they take control and sometimes ignore the wishes of their patients. They seem very old school in their attitude back to the days when patients couldn't really make informed choices for their care because information wasn't readily available to them. Times have changed and overall Royal Free has moved with these, like most of the NHS to patient centred care, but some of the staff haven't moved with the changes.
I think some of the issues are they don't have the luxury of time that they may have at the birth centre or other hospitals.
I truly hope that some of the complaints are read and addressed by the team, who by whole work hard and effectively under a lot of pressure. I truly hope by the time I attend the labour unit again fingercrossed not until many months, some changes have been made to address many of the complaints.
I think more awareness of the individuals birth plan, more availbility for Epidurals. I think a concerted effort to perhaps intergrate many of the successful methods that work in the Birth Centre, onto the wards would help. Just because your pregnancy may be higher risk or have to be induced doesn't mean you wouldn't also benefit from massage water, mobility and greater control over the postion you give birth in, unless of course there is a medical reason to support restricted movement and/or instrument intervention, but those reasons should be explained. I saw a couple of women seemed most distressed because control of their labour was totally taken away from them, lack of pain control and they became like an object in the room that staff were doing things to and I think this is what often is the cause of greatest distress.
I'm sticking with the Royal Free I just hope they don't let me down.