"On the floor they're great.... the rest are..."

We planned to go to Warwick for the birth of our first baby (March 2018), so we booked onto the Maternity familiarisation tour.

As a couple we had a tour of the birthing rooms, wards and family room.

We were toured by a lady who had only done the tour once before with 11 other couples.

So that's 22 to 1... all in winter coats, being shepherded around a working ward by nurse that wasn't overly familiar with the answers she would need to provide. Not ideal, as not everyone got to ask or hear questions the responses.

The birth itself.. we waited for a long time to get booked in, even though contractions had started some time before.

The teams were great once we were in.

Upon being discharged there was a lot of confusion as to if we could go (some said yes, and paper-pushers said no) only to find out that the final step was to have a head nurse show you a pack of leaflets, and talk through them page by page (there is no need for a walking/talking contents page) when we did ask questions we were pointed to websites or phone numbers...

so why were we kept an extra few hours?

Parking charges are ridiculous, but I've since heard patients can get parking reduced if you know where to ask... which we still don't.

There is a massive issue in post-natal appointments and data transferring to local midwife/heath care visitors.

Appointments are missed, mis-communicated and inefficient.

So a massive thank you to the nurses who are doing the work.

To the rest of them, get your act together and help to improve process and reduce inefficiency.

Logging things on paper and on an iPad (Badger) is duplication of effort.

Refine your process and maybe you'll reduce cost to the NHS.... and patients who end up with £60 parking fee's