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I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but I was...

Story from nhs.uk

"I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but I was..."

About: The Royal Victoria Infirmary / Maternity care

After giving birth to my oldest daughter at the RVI six years ago, I was left in a lot of pain for hours and hours. I waited 7 hours to be discharged, to be transferred to Hexham who gave me some pain relief drugs within minutes of arrival. I had been worried about giving birth to my second child at the same hospital, but due to a medical condition I didn’t have a choice. I was right to be worried. After delivery my daughter had breathing difficulties and needed intensive care treatment but there wasn’t room at the RVI and she had to be shipped to Sunderland. I was put on a ward where every other mum’s baby’s were in the same hospital! My medical records were mixed up with someone else’s and the midwife kept telling me to take my anti depressant, I guess that the other Mum was on anti depressants because I wasn’t. I developed an infection that wasn’t picked up promptly probably again due to the mix up in records and yet again I was left waiting for hours in pain to be discharged, I least this time I knew to take my own drugs with me!!!

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Responses

Response from The Royal Victoria Infirmary 6 years ago
The Royal Victoria Infirmary

Submitted on 16/04/2018 at 09:37
Published on nhs.uk at 13:06

We are sorry that following your second daughter’s birth, it was necessary, due to capacity issues within our neonatal unit, to transfer your daughter to another unit.

We do appreciate that this is a difficult experience for families but our overriding aim was to ensure your daughter received the level of neonatal care she required. We do apologise that this was necessary but we hope that the reasons for this were made clear at this time. Transfer is the safest option in this situation but we do acknowledge and understand for parents this causes unexpected upset and inconvenience, however ensuring your daughter received appropriate neonatal care would be the priority.

It is not clear whether or not you remained at the RVI or were transferred to Sunderland with your baby. In the event you remained at the RVI we would be very happy to discuss the concerns you raise with you personally, if this is something you would like to do. You can contact Mrs Elaine Blair Head of Midwifery (0191 2825666) and she will be most happy to discuss your concerns over the telephone or meet you at a time convenient to you. We appreciate this feedback and will aim to try and improve our services as a result of this. . Alternatively if you are willing to discuss the issues further with the Patient Relations Department at patient.relations@nuth.nhs.uk or on 0191 223 1382, they will be able to facilitate an investigation in to the events and provide you with a more detailed response.

We are also sorry to hear that you had a bad experience following the birth of your previous baby six years ago whilst in the Maternity department at the RVI. We wish to apologise for this and would want to assure you, and other readers of this comment, that we do make every effort to look closely into any concerns and would encourage people to contact us at the time.

We are sorry to hear that your experience was not to the high standards we aim to achieve.

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