Please help - how can I change hospital?

[muppet3]

Please can anyone offer any advice? I'm 11 weeks pregnant with what will hopefully be our first child. A previous pregnancy ended with a d&c in december when I was found to have had a delayed miscarriage at 10 weeks. We live in the Chelsea and Westminster hospital catchment area, but are miles (literally) from that hospital - we live within 10 minutes walk of St Thomas' hospital, but are on 'the wrong side of the river' for their catchment area.

My GP referred me to Tommys at my request - C&W have a level of intervention/epidurals/C-sections/forceps etc that is way, way above the national average (and a reputation for pushing people away from natural births). Plus last time, when we had to tell them about the miscarriage and cancel appointments etc. they were awful - unsympathetic and hurtful.

Tommys, in contrast, has a refurbished birthing unit, caseload midwives, an emphasis on natural birth wherever possible, and ongoing support for breastfeeding. It's just a totally different philosophy there. Oh - and I could see my home from the ward, and wouldn't feel stranded so far away from dh.

But my GP has just written to me to tell me that Tommys have turned me down for living out of area. So she has hastily referred me to C&W as otherwise I'll get no antenatal care. I'm sat here with no appointment to see any midwife, and no idea if I'm going to get a nuchal scan on the NHS (delayed referral to C&W means I'll be in a waiting list, they're so oversubscribed, and last time I was pregnant they were only managing to squeeze in scans by 13 weeks if you got referred earlier than 8 weeks in).

I don't want to go there. If Tommys had accepted me, I'd be having a booking in appointment by next week, but instead I'm in limbo. And very, very anxious, after everything that happened last time.

Please - does anyone have any advice on how I can get Tommys to take me? And how I can actually get to see someone soon? Am on the verge of trying to figure out if we can pay for a nuchal scan privately as there seems so little chance of getting one on the NHS in London.

Sorry you're having to go through this muppet especially bearing in mind the way you were treated at C&W after your miscarriage. No real advice although I think I would be tempted to pay for a nuchal scan privately so that at least you won't have to worry about it (about £100 I think.) Could you be referred to a different hospital? My GP asked me for my 3 preferences when I went to see him. Good luck - I hope you manage to sort it out.

Hi Muppet,

Sorry for all the upsets you're having - I paid for a private nuchal scan at The Fetal Medicine Centre on Harley Street as it's much more detailed than the nuchal scan available on the NHS (they combine results with blood tests etc)- I think it was £120 and it's really well worth it. I'd advise you to book one of these in the meantime, so you are reassured that everything is going well while you wait for the NHS to sort out which hospital you have to attend. I don't know if it's much help but from what I've heard from friends who've had babies all over London, there doesn't seem much to choose between hospitals. One of my friends was booked into St Thomas and when her husband phoned up to say she was in labour, they said that they were full that night and that he'd need to take her to a hospital in Croydon! I'm in SW London and am booked in at St Georges - I'm told that their intervention rates are not high and as they are a teaching hospital they are pretty good - especially for difficult births.

Hope you get everything sorted out!
Tinasan