Which hospital to pick in London?! March 2017 dd

[Nehalsd]

Hello!

I just moved to the UK from Dubai where everything was private and there were three hospitals to pick from!

Which hospital should I pick? My GP was pushing me to pick UCH but I've heard some horror stories about places.

I would ideally like somewhere that is modern/stateof the art, caring, and has a great reputation.

Any suggestions?
N.

Where are you living? That will make a big difference. I'm at St Thoms in Lambeth and have found them to be wonderful, very supportive for a first timer with bad anxiety. Not sure how 'state of the art' things are, but the hospital is spotlessly clean, the staff are wonderful, and the equipment they have seems on par with the ultrasound machine we had at our private scan. For the 12 and 20 week scans the scan picture is actually on a tv monitor in front of you so you can watch the whole scan easily.

I live in central london, so i think i can self refer to any

UCH, Kings, St Thomas's and St George's are all huge teaching hospitals and so have excellent equipment and specialist care. I believe UCH offers an extra scan (at 32 weeks?) as standard so that may appeal to you.

However the distance from your home is important - you don't want a long trafficky journey when you're in labour! And you don't want to have to set off earlier than you need to simply to ensure you get there in time. Which hospitals are your nearest?

As regards care, there will be good and bad stories about all the big London hospitals because they are very busy and there will be times they are overstretched. However IME the bad stories tend to be about overstretched postnatal care (nobody to help you breastfeed etc) rather than birth.

Check the availability of private rooms as that makes a big difference. St Thomas's has a few I think. St George's has them but you can't pre book, they are given to those with medical need first. Not sure about UCH/Kings.

UCH is good, there's also Chelsea and West, St Thomas', Kings and St Mary's. It really does depend how far you are and how you're going to get there. Or if you want to go private there's the Portland.

Are you paying? If so then I would go for an NHS private unit that is part of or next to a large special care baby unit/major hospital just in case.

King's also offer an extra scan, at 36 weeks. Fetal medicine there is run by one of the leading people in the world in his field

Modern and london is a bit of an oxymoron.

London hospitals tend to be old. Very few are state of the art, it's the NHS.

Kings is a shithole, for example, but you get excellent medical care.

Caring depends on how understaffed the unit is and how much time they don't have to be touchy feely with every patient.

I went to Lewisham. Busy, chronically understaffed, but couldn't fault the medical care I received.

I'm at St Thomas, was UCH before - liking the change but not have had DD2 birth yet. They do not routinely do the 3rd scan which I had at UCH.

They do clinics in the community (or that is my experience) which logistically I did not expect - last time I self-referred and was 100% hospital with UCH.

I found King's totally fine. Clean, modern etc, not a shithole at all

I couldn't disagree with newname more. As a Londoner, I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to choose between multiple teaching hospitals (which have all been rated highly by CQC) that are affiliated with world class universities.

Not all of the hospitals will have a modern exterior but the majority have had extensive refurbishment within the past 10-15 years and all have modern equipment.

Being the NHS, all are extremely overstretched but the reputation of the hospitals mean they attract some of the best staff, and the overwhelming majority go above and beyond for their patients.

As a pp mentioned, the leading professor at Kings is linked to the Fetal Medicine Centre and Kings are very highly regarded for their antenatal care - considered the best in the country by a lot of healthcare professionals. They offer a growth scan to all women at around 36 weeks and also offer harmony test on NHS if you are considered to be high risk for Downs.

I am at UCH - also very highly regarded by most healthcare workers. I have found that I haven't had much time to discuss any concerns with the midwife before 20 weeks and information has been lacking slightly but I have every confidence the care as pregnancy progresses will be excellent. All staff are friendly and helpful. Only thing to note is they have removed the 32 week growth scan for low risk pregnancies now. As a separate note, the equipment is the same as that used in private centres.

St Thomas is also fantastic, all be it stretched on the postnatal unit. The midwives are great and equipment is modern.

I don't know as much about St Marys, Chelsea and Westminster and Queen Charlotte but I have only heard good things about all 3.

All of the above have absolutely fantastic neonatal care units (even though you hope you won't need one)

Check out each hospital's website to find out about options for private rooms if that is important to you. If you are paying for your care, I agree with a pp to pick an excellent NHS hospital and deliver in the private suite.

Hope that helps

Thank you so much for all your suggestions. Based on closeness and overall teview im probably going to go btw kings and uch.

Many thanks for taking the time to write to me