***PANORAMA TONIGHT!*** Filmed at my local PCT BARNET GENERAL HOSPITAL, and they have issued a statement.....

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Dated 26th April 2007

"Dear Mothers To Be

Re: Panorama

We are writing to inform you that Barnet General Hospital will be featured in a 1 hour Panorama Special on Maternity Services.

The Trust is being featured as a result of undercover filming that took place at the start of the year at Barnet Hospital. The programme will make a number of accusations about the care our women receive which are either untrue or taken completely out of context.

At Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust we endeavour to provide the best possible care for mothers and babies. We have recently received an external award for the systems and processes we have in place to ensure that we provide women with a safe and quality Maternity Service.

Whilst the Panorama programme may highlight some concerns in the provision of Maternity care, we have conducted a thorough investigation of the issues Panorama has raised with us. We would like to reassure you that we have found no evidence of our mothers and babies receiving a substandard care or coming to any harmm. As a Trust we strive to give all our motehrs and babies the best possible care.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to speak to either your Midwife or the Doctor caring for you.

Yours sincerely

Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
Clinical Director Women's and Children's Services.

Carol Littlehales, Head of Midwifery.

Although probably not hopping strictly speaking (if in labour at the time )

Don't run away....

NB, you can see why I feel so strongly about some of the things I do, when the my PCT - The Barnet & Chase Farm Trust is so poorly staffed, by staff that are so demoralised that they begin to 'treat' their patients as some sort of sub-human species.

I am so and . So many needless deaths. My friend had their DS at Barnet and I firmly believe his CP is down to the hospitals failings in the ante-natal and labour care - or lack of.

VVV, I had my sons at Barnet and not 10 mins ago I was recalling to my mother exactly the things you commented on in your post yesterday at 21:29. Especially the night staff.

mm I read that as had my sons at Barnet 10 minutes ago!!!
I really must go to bed

Tee hee. I feel tired enough for that to be true! So I think I should go to bed too...

Sorry vvv not ignoring you your experience sounds awful it really shouldn't be like that. I remember someone else saying that their experience wiht night staff was awful too.

Yes VVV the programme was really an eye-opener. I mean you know the NHS has problems but to see them first hand brings it home, just how bad.

The power of mumsnet just had me thinking the whole time about breast feeding issues. If it's such a bloody problem actually delivering the baby in the first place what hope for successful bf?

(Funny on Question Time Oona King and Patricia Fukcwit were saying how satisfied patients were!!!!)

The sad thing is that, having been at Barnet, none of what was shown there was very surprising to me.

at Oona King and Patfuckwit....

Women, on the whole, shouldnt be treated as 'patients' whilst giving birth. They should be treated as women, as mothers.

I think this is what overburdens the NHS. Perfectly healthy women, with perfectly healthy pregnancies often end up with totally over-medicalised labours. That's not to say women shouldnt have the choice if they want to. But there is so many procedures that are performed that arent necessary that then require constant medical supervision/intervention.

But the squeezing out of Independent Midwives will only prove to put more pressure on maternity units, and cause more mw's to rely on monitors to do their job for them.

This will mean more coached pushing to get the babies out quicker so that the bed is available for the next patient.

it's a bloody mess!

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so what, as women do we do about it ??/It's clear that the whole maternity services issue is in the middle of a meltdown..and the government has issued the implementation of guidelines that every woman will receive one to one care during labour (not political btw !!!) 'tis a joke !!!!!

I feel lucky that I had two positive experiences when I gave birth...but I shouldn't feel 'lucky', it should be my right to expect such care...and so should every other woman in the country !!!

I feel so sorry for the midwives too, to have been placed in such an appalling position - but I bet it's probably the case that the really good midwives have got so f*** off with the system that they're either leaving or have left the profession (could you really work under those conditions if you really cared ?)

The CEO of the PCT is so typical of people in that position - they all seem to come across as very politically correct promising that "full investigations will take place" when the reality is that they havn't got a clue what goes on at ground level, despite being paid significant sums of money often x4/5 of the staff working at ground level....

My dear mum (in her early 60's) works in a hospital and has done so for over 30 years (not maternity) and says that the NHS is worse now than it was 40 years ago with many of the staff (not all, but the majority) nowadays not really giving a toss about the patients........

But what do do about it ????

That is the question......

Good questions boobsgonesouth.

I guess this has never really been a voting issue, you don't see manifestos mentioning it (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I had both mine at home and I'm not having any more but this makes me angry. (I didn't see the programme, I mean the bad experiences women have of childbirth generally)

barnet covers such a wide area too, they shut edgware and the smaller barnet maternity hospital. it just cannot cope with the sheer number of mothers, some women in with me were from south london.

i remember watching some mothers being told they'd have to go to chase farm as barnet was full. i was there three weeks and there never seemed to be any empty beds. the sarcasm of some of the nurses on panorama was shocking too

I used to be a midwife. I cried most of the way through last night's programme. I really, really miss being a midwife, but in today's NHS? No way. I just couldn't bear it.
Most of the colleagues I trained with are no longer practising, and feel the same way. there are midwives working as phlebotomists, working in Marks and Spencers, doing clerical and admin jobs, or, like the lady featured on last night's programme, on their way to Australia and NZ as fast as they can.

I do feel sorry for the midwives - to have to care for others with such minimal resouces and equipment day after day must be overwhelmingly stressful and totally demoralising - but having watched the programme did they have to be so lacking in compassion? Those responses such as "tell her to get a life" (thankfully not relayed directly) about the woman who was in full labour and crying in a corridor or joking about a woman's post-operative pain is just so hard and cold. Even when they are operating in such desperately bad circumstances is that sort of attitude excusable?

Boobsgonesouth you're right. Its ahrd to find anything solid from my party. I did find here but its not up to date. Perhaps if everyone found out who won in their area (if they had an election yesterday) and e-mailed them then we could congratul;ate them and then immediately follow with a question: what are they planning to do about the state of amternity services?

If they're useless like my MP 9who doesn't 'do' enquiries and case work ) don't vote for them again, if they give a good answer whll you have an idea of what they're like don't you?

I still work in the NHS - and you do see more of that sort of attitude across the board these days, but, it is still a tiny minority of staff. The majority are hard working and dedicated, but they get burnt out by the staff shortages and the appalling incompetence of NHS management.

TBH I think the bad attitude is more a reflection of society in general. However, I am a grumpy old woman, so could be looking back with rose coloured spectacles.

After college I worked in a Mental Health Unit and you got a lot of that attitude there, tbh. poeple go in as the kindest most supportive people on the planet but they burn out and get defeated by the system, sometimes its just self- protection- there's only so many times you can go home in tears and not lose it. I imagine its pretty much the same with midwifery. And a touch of the same sense of humour you see on the SN boards here I suspect- humour mixed witha tunch of fatalism and desperation.

The manager from Barnet got on my nerves - talk about sticking your head in the sand, denying there's a problem and blaming the midwives

BTW - the conditions shown are nothing like a 3rd world hospital. I've worked in maternity wards in 3rd world hospitals and believe me the hospitals here (even in last nights programme) are a hundred times better. Its a very easy statement that people who don't have a clue tend to make, sorry 'cos it winds me up a bit.

I'm due to give birth next week, and I'm half wishing I hadn't watched this. I had a horrendous birth experience with ds and I'm panicking that its going to be the same again or worse with this birth.

I sat and watched this prog with my mouth open for most of it, those poor women and thier babies

Its at the point now, where, if I ever did have another, I would opt for a home birth. Irrespective of being overdue, or mild pre-eclampsia - I would be monitored far more at home than I ever was in the hospital.

When kept in to be 'monitored' for BP with DS they never bothered to check in the night 4 hourly like they were supposed to. I'd get woken at 6am by someone switching the lights on and shoving a cuff on my arm. I was so stressed I believe it did more harm me being kept there, than it would had I been at home. On the one hand the Consultants would be telling me I had to stay because it was dangerous and I could die (seriously - he said it just like that), and on the other - the midwives were too busy (and often lazy) to come around and check. What the hell was I being kept in for? An ambulance would arrive quicker at my home than a midwife on the ward would respond to a buzzer.

I would have a home birth, with all my home comforts - no stress, a comfortable bed at night, no sauna-like temperature, no attitude when asking for another pillow. Paracetamol well within an hour of you asking for it. Privacy. A decent shower - with towels.