I spoke with a excellent midwife on the phone, out of hours due to my own midwife working community hours only. The midwife who I spoke with treated me with compassion and empathy. I was advised to attend triage at the maternity ward in St Johns, which I did shortly afterwards.
When I attended the ward I stood at the nurses stations, as there is no designated waiting area that was noticeable. There was 2 midwifes at the station however nobody spoke to me at first. A clinical support worker came and introduced herself and took my notes. One of the midwifes then asked what I was there for, and that this had not been handed over to them. I was reluctant to state why I was there as this is a busy area, with visitors and people who had just had their babies, and this to me was a sensitive subject. So I responded I was told to come up for triage the midwife then questioned this, and commented that they hadn't been told. The other midwife then explained. Although my personal details were shared in a undignified way, they treated me with kindness at a very vulnerable time.
The clinical support worker advised they would support me to a side round to wait to be assessed, they apologised to me as you could see from my face that I was shocked, and advised it had been a busy day.
The same staff member who was speaking to me at the start completed my triage. They did not introduce themselves, and attempted to use inappropriate humour. The words that were used, I would not repeat.
I want this to be feedback so that no expectant mothers have to go through this. I do appreciate that the wards are busy and times are hard, but people are going to continue to have babies and will require assessment and treatment, therefore communication and handovers have to be effective so that patient experience is positive and person centred
"Communication and handovers have to be effective"
About: St John's Hospital / Maternity care St John's Hospital Maternity care EH54 6PP
Posted by Abcd1012 (as ),
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