My borough has the Highest Infant Mortality Rate in London. It also has the 3rd Highest ratio of HV's to children - Coincidence?

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Doncaster - the top area for HV to child ratio (1 HV to 160 children).

In my borough - third from the bottom - 1 HV to 627 children. B/feeding rates arent great around here either.

Hardly surprising, is it?

This will be the same borough that has cancelled all 8mo check-ups due to lack of resources, yes? Despite my HV saying that check-up was really important.

Also the same borough that is closing one of its main maternity and A&E units. And has the hospitals with the 1st and 3rd highest rates of MRSA in the country?

That'd be the one meg, yes. They cancelled 8 month checks some time ago I think.

I remember when DD was born. I was discharged on day 3 (eventually but the local hospital is a whole other issue), and didnt see a mw for 10 days. HV turned up on day 12.

I was lucky that the MW I'd had looking after me while I was pg 'took over' the postnatal care, she was absolutely lovely and popped round loads.

Have you got a link to the news story?

Link please!

the same borough that had massive waits for speech therapy and audiology for children but now has next to none because they no longer have 2 year old checks? Coincidence???

PT are you Local as well?

Which borough are you? I'm in Westminster and they have cancelled 8 month checkups too.

Yes not far from the hospital you mentioned! Assume you do too?

we don't get 8 months check here now, or any other checks either - unless we ask for them. As a third time mum I'm ok with that - not so good for the first time mums

margoandjerry they have cancelled 8 month check ups just about everywhere - it is all to do with this health for all children (hall 4) stuff - trying to target resources where most needed!

CSWS - cant link - it was in the local paper.

We are Enfield.

DD didnt have tooo long to wait for speech therapy at pre-school age.

Since she's started school she's got completely lost in the system.

Meg - wasnt the Irish mw was it?

www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/hssmd15-04.pdf see item 5. This has given NHS trusts carte blanche to cut nearly all screening for pre-school children under hv care.

Oh didn't know that. Westminster generally treat children with disdain anyway (shocking schools in the second wealthiest borough in the country) so assumed it was just them but bad that it's everywhere.

Also the borough that has closed most baby weighing/HV clinics in the north of the borough but has sent most of the HVs to the south of the borough

Also the borough that almost killed me and my daughter (and many others I know of) and left her with disabilities due to under funding 13 years ago, so nothing changed, just got a whole lot worse

The HVs were so upset when the changes came in, they may not be brilliant but they recognised the checks and the clinics did help a lot of mums

The place is going to ruin

Many HVs not at all happy - this has been imposed on them from on high and I mean from the very top.

Our clinic is always so madly busy, I rarely bother taking him tbh.

VVV, the mw wasn't Irish, her initials were NP. Sadly she wasn't on duty when I was in labour (I must have seen every other mw at the hospital at some point though as I was in labour for 48 hours and they seemed to change shifts constantly!).

We had to wait many weeks to get a referral to CF for his eczema. IME most of the staff at CF work very hard with limited resources, we have met some lovely nurses and paramedics as we've been in and out of there in the last month with bronchiolitis and after DS fell down the stairs, it's the lack of working equipment that seems to be the main problem.

I'm not in any of the boroughs mentioned, but even before DS1, now 3.5, was 8 months they had been "cancelled".

DS2 has been referred for physio (amongst other therapies) and there are none in my borough.

It took from July till September for him to be assessed, and it will be January before some of them kick in.

He needed grommets, but were told the wait to get them on the NHS is "endless".

I think you get the picture....

Our clinic (st michaels), I never bother going to. Never felt the need but 2 of the HVs were really good there. The others were absolute rubbish.

The mw I was referring to was the senior MW in the team/area. Her initials were EM. She was brilliant. But resources for mw's were so ridiculously stretched it just was never going to work well. She blamed a great deal of the problem on resources, coupled with the vastly transient population where we are. The whole PCT needs billions thrown at it.

St Michaels was our clinic too, before we moved we had a lovely HV there too now it's Ridge House which is just horrid and cramped, and you just hear the same old 'wean at 20 weeks', 'leave them to cry' type advice being dispensed, so I've never actually lingered to ask advice myself.

My favourite 'lack of resources' moment during the birth apart from having to share a heart monitor after my epidural, despite DS' heart rate dipping alarmingly with every contraction was when they came to strap my legs into the stirrups, one of the straps was broken and they advised DH to "hold her leg down". Luckily he is a resourceful chap, so whipped off his belt and used it to tie my leg down.

Was it the young doyle?

She was ace.