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Very very poor service

Story from nhs.uk

"Very very poor service"

About: Darent Valley Hospital

What I liked

Im not very happy with this hospital at all im 22 weeks pregnant and have had one ante-natal check for which i had to wait over an hour after my appointmant time ! i was due another on the 23rd of may 2011at 2.10 pm only to get there and find the same situation waited for over an hour again in a hot packed waiting room so had to stand for most of the wait when there were people with more than one person with them taking up the seats and not one offer to let the five pregnant people standing a seat ! .in the end i couldnt be seen as i have a 5 year old daughter to pick up from school of which the hospital know about and no-one else to do this for me and as there was three people with the same appointment time as myself and only 2 doctors available and still more than five people to be seen before us i had to leave and have been told theres at least a 3 week waiting list for another appointment .whilse there people were saying how poor this service is and heard many bad things which im now experiencing myself .This is totally unacceptable im almost six moths pregnant and have been seen once by a midwife at a local nursery and once at hospital ante-natal clinic also have waisted time and money i dont have (travel and parking costs ) to just not be seen also had a 45min delay for my second scan appointment .looking forward to hearing your responce to this .

Regards tina

What could be improved

Give people realistic appointment times would be a great start !

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Responses

Response from Darent Valley Hospital 12 years ago
Darent Valley Hospital

Submitted on 25/05/2011 at 13:39
Published on nhs.uk on 26/05/2011 at 04:00

Please accept my sincere apologies for the long waits you experience in the clinic. You certainly should have not been left to stand - one of the staff should have found somewhere for waiting patients to sit (even if not in the same area, given it was clearly very busy).

I'm afraid delays aren't always avoidable as sometimes there are problems with staff sickness, or women who have special needs who need longer to be seen. However we do try and avoid this as much as possible. I have asked the Head of Midwifery to review the clinic standards and appointment systems urgently and ensure that women are made comfortable and are kept informed if there is to be a delay.

Many thanks for your feedback, and I do hope that the rest of your pregnancy goes well and you receive a better service from us in future.

With best wishes,

Jenny Kay

Director of Nursing

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