"I need to know there is someone to talk to"

Dear EGA Wind Maternity Services at UCL

 

To help you improve your services, I am following the suggestions of one of your midwifes and have decided to write down my concerns regarding the UCL services for the Maternity Wind and regarding the EPIC App.

 

I am European, 5 month pregnant. I have decided to give birth in the UK. Looking back at my decision and I am wondering if I have taken the right decision. In fact, even though UCL has a respectable name, it seems to be an un-accessible to people like myself.

 

Matters of concern which I hope will improve are the following.

 

I feel left alone and abandoned. Communication is very difficult and nearly impossible. I often find myself waiting for 15-20 min on the phone without ever getting through. It happens often that I am in a call, a call I waited for a long long time, and I get disconnected! That has happened so many times now that I feel it is your system. One day when I was particularly felt sick I ended up calling 10 times..really it was 10 but I did not talk to anyone.On a lucky day when someone finally does answer then, like a tennis ball, I am put through to someone else, then someone else, until I end up where I called the first time. It almost seems that no-one wants to take action on what I have asked, as if each single person has such a narrow spectrum of actions it can do that it is nearly impossible that my request matches anyone's work description. I am thus left alone with my questions and my problems.Information is very scarce.

Though there is a clear list of appointments, a very fancy looking App system and cute colorful leaflets, there is practically not much information. I have taken action on things because of a friend telling me or the internet. As much as the internet is notoriously a bad place for patients to be, that is the only thing left when there is absolutely nobody from the NHS wanting to listen and talk to you. Let me tell you two examples: the flu and toxoplasmosis.

No-one at UCL mentioned the fact that I have to take the flu vaccination. My next appointment with the midwife is at the end of October, much too late for a pregnant mother to do be told she needs a vaccination (years ago I got the flu in mid October). Fortunately I had a friend to tell me and I went to Boots. Toxoplasmosis: I was not aware I wasn’t supposed to touch stray cats, who was to tell me, the internet? I have today called my GP who says that they cannot do anything and need to talk to my midwife. Since my midwife appointment is in 30 days I have been trying in vain to call you. When someone did answer today, they told me to contact the midwife. Now…how on earth do I contact a midwife? I have been on the hone 1 hour now, no one answers the Triage number and all Im able to reach is a messaging system after ringing 30 times.I often feel like a ping pong ball between my GP and you. You tell me to go to GP for things and the GP tells me that no, its UCL that has to do it. At the end I am left with both ends refusing to do simple things as a blood test. Why don’t the two parties talk to each other? What am I supposed to do…

All in all I feel that the only way to make sure that I am safe and my child is safe it to either go privately or go to my home country. I need a system that works, not a system that looks just fancy on the outside but has nobody on the other side. I need people, I need to feel cared for, I need to know there is someone to talk to. I feel so hopeless …all I see is closed doors. I keep on knocking at the doors but there is no one.

 

 

And that brings me to the fancy looking my Care App which, I apologize for my direct speech, I find it useless. In fact the one use it has it to check my appointment times and dates, in case I have forgotten to write them down in my own agenda. Everything else is either obsolete or has not worked for me:

 

Either it is not there, or it is incredibly hard to find what my hospital number is by searching on the app. I apparently get sent summaries of my visits but I cannot access them with the App. I cannot make an appointment. I cannot write emails. There is pretty much nothing else the app does

 I hope to have with this email giving you the opportunity to improve the services.

Regards