"Royal Victoria Infirmary - from bad to worse"

My grandson was born a month early and had a condition called gastroschisis.

All previous check ups at the RVI were pretty slap dash and badly organised. One of the doctors checked the measurements for the baby on a scan and gave us results that meant he had got smaller. (which he hadn't when checked at our local hospital) The Dr had just rushed us through in minutes and did the measurements all wrong. Things we were told about what to expect have not happened and when we had to finally go into hospital the ambulance took twice as long to get us there as their new sat nav kept sending us round in circles.

The midwife who was dealing with us had a wedding AND engagement ring on and she never put an apron or gloves on until the baby was actually being delivered, regardless of other injections and care my daughter needed before.

She wasn't very supportive, baring in mind that this was my daughters first child and he would need an operation straight away and there could have been some quite serious complications!

When the baby was taken away for his operation we sat and waited to see if he would be ok but the midwife had moved onto her next patient and nobody was there to explain when the op was over and how it had gone.

She eventually got moved onto the ward where we had to keep asking to get the nurses to find out what was happening with the baby. Eventually they said myself and my daughters partner could go and see him but not my daughter. I was disgusted as my daughter had only briefly seen him for two minutes before his op and my daughter was very upset. In the end we got a wheelchair and a porter to take us to ward three to see the baby.

He was in ward 3 for about a week then put on ward four afterwards. Whilst my daughter had a room at Crawford House, so that both parents could stay with the baby, they were asked to leave three times as they said other parents needed it. Whilst I understand the need it meant that only one parent could stay with baby and as we live an hour and a half away from Newcastle this put much more stress on all of us.

Ward three were very good and we felt very reassured by them but ward four was not even close! They left wrappers and rubbish in all the baby's cots because they did not use a separate trolley when changing lines, etc. My grandson would be found with bits of plastic by his face and bits in his hand which is very poor nursing, especially when they are dealing with such a young life!

The nurses were not supportive or concerned about the parents so when they were emotional and worried there was no reassurance.

Its 21st October tomorrow and the baby will be five weeks old but is still in hospital unable to eat, vomiting, in pain and still hasn't done a poo! We are told that they may put some dye in him to check for blockages, (although they said nothing showed up on the x ray) but they are waiting until the end of the week to do it so the little mite will have to continue suffering until they decide what to do. If whats happened up to date is anything to go by then we are still left worried and stressed about the baby's welfare.

I would never recommend this hospital to anyone but our local hospital, the Friarage, has been excellent throughout the pregnancy its a shame it couldn't deal with a baby with this condition!