To change hospital after booking now 17wks

[MumToBe2015R]

Hello,

I chose whittington hospital which is like 15mins away from me. But since I've been going for my appointments staff are RUDE & so UNORGANISED. I'm getting worried if this is the way they are now what will it be like after I have given birth I totally understand they have so many patients & all, but I saw staff members rude to other patients to.

Eg:
I was asked to have a GT test & they have me a appointment at like 1130 am so I had to fast from midnight until then, only to find out the midwife didnt have me down for the test so she didnt do it. Then she decides she wants to take some bloods to check my Vitamin D, in the end did I get the results back for that.... NO! Because then I'm told later on in the week that she shouldn't have even taken my bloods!

So buy this point it's 12:45! I'm staving & there carrying on like its normal!

Mind my language, I'm so pissed off! I feel I want to be referred to UCH, heard so many good things about this hospital.

Can I still do this at 17weeks?

Sorry to hear you're not having a good experience. You've got to be comfortable where you're giving birth.

I changed hospitals both times with mine because I wanted to have my scans in the hospital next to work but wanted to give birth nearer home. They didn't ask why I wanted to change.

I offered to come a bit early and fill out all the forms so the midwife just had to check them rather than waste a load of her time.

Good luck.

Plenty of people switch hospital. But just to warn you that I found antenatal at UCH was shockingly awful. Regularly had to stand and queue for 20 mins to check-in, then wait another half hour for an appointment. Plenty of agency midwives. Never saw the same person twice. I fear this is just what London hospitals are like. Cost of living too high for midwives to live there.

It is possible to change (I will be doing so sometime between 28-32 weeks as I'm moving) but I agree with the pp that UCH isn't everything you think. The clinics have always been late, the midwives haven't been particularly useful (I've found out more on here than in my appointments most of the time) and on one occasion the midwife blatantly took in the patient after me before they saw me when we'd been told there was only one other person waiting before me and we'd watched them go in and come out again....this was after the appointment was already an hour late.

I agree, no hospital in London is perfect. I had a horrendous experience at UCH then went to Whittington for DC2 and thought they were brilliant.

Wow I always heard only good things from uch so surprised to hear all this, but can totally understand.

Umbrella how was your care during giving birth & after? X

Uch is very good at positive PR. They do do some things well but not necessarily better than other places. From what I can see on here, fir every good story about a maternity centre there's a bad review.

That is unfortunate, I'm at the Whittington currently and had my first DC there too. I thought my care was/is great. If you're really not happy you could move to the Royal Free?

I will admit the GTT is a pain. They are busy in that department.

I've had a lot of friends give birth at Whittington over the years and they all seemed to have pretty good experiences during the actual event. Those who wanted birthing pools etc managed to get a room with them. And the post-natal seems marginally better than UCH simply because it is a bit smaller.

UCH has a lovely midwife led unit on the third floor. If you get really lucky you can give birth there, stay the night, and never have to go near the hellish post-natal wards. Unfortunately I didn't manage this.

I worked at UCLH until a few months ago and I wouldn't hesitate to give birth there. You will be in safe hands. Yes, you might have to wait for appointments but they are committed to providing excellent and safe patient care. I live other side of London so am giving birth at C&W although I was very tempted to make the trip across London!