2023: Sir Stanley Clayton Ward Experiences?

[lockdownguru]

Hello, has anyone had recent experiences with the private antenatal & postnatal of QC? There are some positive posts from at least a few years ago but curious if anyone bad a more recent experience.

I live in Ealing area and would like to go for a private hospital for my first birth and trying to decide between a few options, including Lindo Wing but QC seems like a good option location-wise and access to the emergency services, just in case.

I stayed in the SC ward post delivery in 2022. Good service (care for both you and baby, food, midwife support) but we did have some difficulties with some of our medical care. Our baby had some medical concerns which were being investigated at St Mary’s (QC’s sister hospital) and it was exceptionally difficult to get information from the lead doctor during a very distressing time. I also recall the main midwife was keen for us to be discharged and be treated as out-patients whilst we were waiting for investigations to be completed and told the doctors that was our preference too (which was a lie). She was more interested in closing down the ward as we were the only patients. It left a very bitter taste in what should’ve been a lovely experience but as I said, this was due to medical issues which SC were not directly involved with.

Thanks and sorry to hear that. We had a tour of the facilities and spoken to a midwife recently, and decided not to go private. Ih fact, we were very surprised at the attitude.

In summary my feelings & observations were:

• I am trying to decide whether I should pay 10s of thousands of pounds but I could spend only 30 mins talking to a midwife. During the conversation, we are told once we sign up there will be a comprehensive 2 hour session to go through the whole process and our questions. But only after we pay the deposit. Nonsense.
• We enquired about consultant-led delivery but they knew almost nothing about it and told us to get in touch with a consultant directly.
• Midwife said, “Private will get you priority for all your scans and appointments. Instead of waiting for 2 hours you will wait only 30 minutes”. Well, not a good ROI for 10k pounds.
• All the tests and scans are identical to NHS, anything extra will come out of our pocket. So again, ROI..

We are planning to go with NHS for now but scheduling some extra private appointments - such as extra scans and NIPT test. This seemed more sensible for now.

My understanding is Private gives you two things:

• Skip the waiting queues, but up to a degree
• Guaranteed private room after delivery

Hello, thank you for sharing your experience. I visited the Lindo wing and I am about to visit the Sir Stanley Clayton ward. My understanding so far is that you have to go private on both sides, i.e. hospital and consultant. They said that going through NHS means being seen by a midwife only unless she estimates that you need to see a consultant.

Please, can you tell me whether it is possible to go through NHS with the hospital and but at the same time private with a consultant? I am quite confused about the system how it works. Many thanks!

Typically consultants work with hospitals for their facilities etc - this is exactly what you are paying for when you get quotes from hospitals. Then add around 10k on top of it for the consultant’s fee.

But you don't get one through NHS (not private) unless you are referred to them by a midwife, right? I was told that NHS is without consultant (the whole procedure including delivery is by mid-wife) unless it is necessary to been seen by one.

@DLH2 thanks for sharing your experience! This is very useful as I am deciding between Queen Charlotte's (SC) and St Mary's (Lindo Wing) and visited SC today. My consultant works at both but prefers QC, which could be because it's his main hospital so he may not be completely unbiased.

He said that QC has a better neonatal unit compared to St Mary's so I was a bit surprised when I read that your baby's medical concerns were investigated at St Mary's. May I ask why they couldn't investigate them at QC if it's not too personal? Just trying to figure out which one of these two is better from this perspective.

Would also appreciate any additional info you could share based on your experience. Was also surprised to read about the main midwife. I thought this was another advantage of SC - more personal care as you get to know all midwives. There are only 6 of them there I was told. Thanks!

I don’t know if this helps but we opted not to go private and instead booked at Chelsea under the NHS. I haven’t delivered yet but 7 months in and the care has been impeccable. I’ve never waited more than 20 mins for an appointment running behind and this is rare. I see the same midwife. I was immediately referred to consultant led care and given extra scans when indicated (I do have a complex history). I work in the medical field myself and so feel well equipped to evaluate the quality of the care I’ve received and honestly considering the input from various teams I’ve needed (cardio, diabetes etc) I genuinely believe private care would have been to a lower standard or prohibitively expensive.

I am keen for a private room after birth but you can pay for these separately at the hospital (both less luxurious on post natal ward or very luxurious in the private Kensington Wing).

@jamontoast2 thanks for the suggestion! Chelsea is unfortunately too far from us. The closest is St Mary's, then Portland, UCLH and then Queen Charlottes.

I have considered NHS initially as going private is indeed prohibitively expensive but since this is my first I don't want to take any chances as NHS seems to be hit and miss. The level of care is sometimes exceptional like in your case but they are understaffed so there are equally a lot of horror stories based on what I read.

Also I am quite likely to have a c section and I think on NHS they cannot guarantee that the consultant you saw would do it. It's more likely to be whoever is on call that day and that's a big issue for me which is why I have eventually decided in favour of a private wing of a big NHS hospital and narrowed it down to St Mary's and QC.

If anyone could share any other recent experiences from either Lindo Wing or Stanley Clayton that woudl be great! Thank you

That’s very fair - especially if you know you want a c section going in. My friend had a very positive experience in February this year on Stanley Clayton under Dr Bryony. She had a vaginal delivery with an epidural. Felt the midwives were good, really like Dr Bryony and appreciated that they offer a nursery so you can get some rest after baby is born.

Thank you! That's really good to hear she had a positive experience there recently. I am torn between the two but have time to decide as it's still early days for me.

Hope everything goes well for you at Chelsea! It would have been also on my list had it not be too far from us.