Royal Free or UCH?

[pecanpie]

I am only 5 weeks pregnant but am seeing the doctor next week to get a referral to either Royal Free or UCH. I already have 1 DD and went to Royal Free because it was closest. Generally I was happy with RF, except that they lost all my paperwork, I was kept waiting for hours for the doctor's appointments in the hospital (consultant's team) and had one particularly unpleasant appointment with a registrar who stank to high heaven - doesn't really give me any confidence in the hospital's standards of hygeine! I know aftercare in all hospitals is terrible.

Here's the deal - I had a mmc a few weeks back and am anxious about this pregnancy. I want good antenatal care. I am also coeliac which for some unknown reason puts me in the high risk bracket meaning more hospital appointments with consultant led teams.

I am also terrified of actual childbirth - apart from the pain, I thought (irrationally) that DD was going to die during labour, not helped when things did start to get pressured and a million medical staff appeared in the room as they were worried about DD. They refused to give me the help of a ventouse when I needed it, despite the fact that they were pressuring me to get the baby out, which I couldn't do alone. This time, I want to be able to discuss the possibility of having a c-section with the hospital without being forced into any particular birth scenario.

What are your experiences with either hospital? Which has the best professional reputation? Do either have any particularly good consultants who work privately so that if I can't get an early scan on the NHS I could at least go to see someone relevant to my pregnancy for those sorts of appointments as extras?

Thanks in advance.

I have had the most horrible experience at the Royal Free in the last couple of days after about 3 years of dealing with their incompetence off and on. My own falult I guess for staying there but once you get treated at one hospital it becomes very difficult to change and my GP has not been very helpful either.

I am 25 weeks pregnant with my first child after 3 miscarriages and bilateral ovarian cystectomy at RF. In the past, they have failed to follow up on scans showing cysts that needed intervention, lost records within departments and been generally shoddy when it comes to administration. However, I felt that once I was in the care of the professionals they were decent but I have been terribly let down this time. I went in on Monday afternoon due to vomitting and severe left abdominal pain and was told I was to be admitted and needed a scan which would be later on Monday or early next morning. They failed to set up a scan until the next afternoon but what was much worse is that they told me to be nil by mouth from Midnight on Monday and did not find time to give me any IV fluids until 11.30 next morning by which time I had been without any food or water or iv fluids for about 13 hrs and decided to discharge myself. The doctors who saw me and my plan stated that I needed to be given iv fluids but the midwifes on the ward were either too overoworked or could nto be bothered to give me fluids even through I repeatedly told them in the morning that I was feeling dizzy and dehydrated and needed something.

eventually, I was so angry and fed up i felt I had no option but to discharge myself and get some food and water. At which point they all sprung into action but too late.

I am so troubled by what happended that I never want to go back to the Royal Free again. I am regsitered to deliver there and am thinking about changing now. Does anyone know how much hassle it will be to change at this stage?