Birth at 'inadequate' unit (we are looking at Bedford)

[gardenlady1]

Hi there

Due to house move, we are looking at transferring to Bedford hospital for childbirth. However, this month it received an inadequate rating - inspection was in Nov last year.

I've read the report and not overly concerned on safety, and conscious that all eyes will be on them to improve in rapid time - a good thing.

But I'm wondering if the CQC inspections are entirely accurate or it's just a snapshot in time? Have you birthed in inadequate hosp and if so did your experience marry up?

Our other choice is Addenbrookes in Cambs but nearly an hour drive, not sure I fancy it with first time baby not sure what to expect!

Thanks for any advice

I had my baby at Bedford hospital in May, delivery staff were fantastic. Overnight staff pretty rude
Having said that, I went in because my waters had broken and my pain was getting stronger and stronger but they dismissed it and told me to go home. An hour and a half later I was back and almost gave birth in triage 🤦🏼‍♀️

Wes Streeting said last week that no Cqc rating should be believed and that there was “rot” at the core of the organisation. There is a full scale review going on of how it asseses and rates. That does not mean Bedford is good but it also doesn’t mean it’s potentially any better or worse than a centre deemed good by the cqc. So don’t let the rating deter you.

I had my baby at bedford and it was a good experience..this was 10 years ago though. I have been back since several times, once for my dd and honestly never had a bad experience.

I would be wary of using a hospital so far away...we were sent home at one point and I was glad we were near the hospital.
Hope whatever you decide it all goes well

All the maternity wards near us are rated inadequate. I am just disregarding it, same as Ofsted, I’m sure a lot of it is rubbish. You could end up going back and forth a fair bit so I’d go to closest one

Same as @Peonies12 - all but one of the 4 nearest to me require improvement or are inadequate. Anecdotally, I had a wonderful experience giving birth whilst two friends at the ‘good’ rated hospital did not. I wouldn’t let it put you off.

I read a lot of these out of professional interest (am a midwife) and I find that a lot of the incidents written up in such reports are quite trivial- for example, in this one it mentions boxes on the floor meaning the area under the floor can't be cleaned this is not to say infection control isn't important or to disregard the slightly more serious issues mentioned, but if boxes on the floor are what they can come up with, it does have a whiff of grasping at straws. I take CQC reports with a big pinch of salt. It will be fine, I'm sure!

No experience of that particular hospital, but our local maternity unit (and hospital in general) was rated inadequate by the CQC and also was in the news for all the wrong reasons with the Lucy Letby case. I had a fantastic experience there, and told the CQC as much as they happened to be in while I was on the postnatal ward. I wouldn’t let ratings worry you too much, I was quite stressed by it but didn’t have any local choices with a good rating so went for the closest one

This is interesting, thanks for sharing. In the report they said due to staff shortages they were often having to pull midwives from the maternity ward into delivery - so wonder if that's what's happening here.

Staffing seems to be the major issue but that's the same at most mat wards and general public sector jobs by looks of it!

As others have said locally all my hospitals are rated as inadequate for maternity services, so I have to kind of get on with it. What I will say is my local hospital did come out with a full response to the report (about 12 months ago) about how they were going to change and employ more staff etc.. which has given me some comfort.

Unfortunately I think a lot of hospitals who have had recent reports are inadequate and some that are good haven't been reviewed recently. You can receive great care at an inadequate hospital or poor care at a good hospital you just never know, I'd personally choose distance every time.

With maternity services being so stretched, it's probably rare to be rated better than adequate.

I have so much respect for all the midwives and other staff ❤️

If it’s mainly staffing rather than a culture of ignoring patients then I wouldn’t be too bothered. Just be prepared to advocate for yourself / make sure your birth partner knows to speak up.

Hi OP. I had my son at Bedford 7 years ago via emergency CSection and currently I'm 17 weeks pregnant and with Bedford again. I'm consultant led and already feel confident in the consultant team, and the midwives I've encountered. Not had an issue at all. I was also under EPU following a mc in January, and they were also great and very considerate over our nerves at this pregnancy. That's just my experiences so far.. but I haven't had one negative as yet and find the maternity unit clean, tidy and friendly x

Thanks so much everyone for the feedback! Really helpful. Also total respect for midwives ♥️

Hi OP, I know it’s been a while since this thread started but I just wondered what your outcome was? We are due in March and are currently reading into the same report at Bedford Hospital. Hope all is okay your end 🙂

I had my DD at Bedford hospital 4 years ago and the midwives were beyond fantastic! They really did everything they could to stick to my birth plan and I have the utmost respect for them all. As others have said though the night staff are few and far between. After a 48 hour labour and a huge episiotomy no one came to top up my pain killers so I had to waddle around looking for staff when the pain meds had worn off. It was Covid at the time though and they were massively understaffed. I would definitely choose to birth there again though because the facilities are good and the staff on the whole were very good . Hopefully they aren't as understaffed these days!

So sorry I've just seen this! I'm due next week and so far the ward staff I've met have been brilliant. I've had mixed care with the consultant team, mainly because I see a different dr every time and get conflicting advice rather than seeing the same person (I don't know why they do this!) but the care outside of that has been great. I'll try remember to update once baby has arrived!! Xx