"Labour ward great, Samson ward overcrowded"

Anything else?

My wife came in every day for a week of monitoring and then her waters broke. She was kept in and after two days induced. General care was fantastic from the midwives on Mafu & chamberlain. There did seem to be an issue that the specialist doctors involved did not talk to each other and so there was seemingly no holistic approach to the decision making process. A lead doctor should really be appointed to the ward who actually has time to bother reading patient notes and avoid asking stupid questions to give patients better pastoral care. Delivery was great and midwives very professional. Samson ward however was overcrowded and staff seemed to be flying apart. The ward was desperate for beds but checking out took hours for no apparent reason with no proper communication or clear process. The final checks by the doctors (seemingly in a storage cupboard) were just repeats of those the midwife had already performed hours earlier. Notes had to be typed by a midwife after the doctor checks even though the majority could be pre-populated by a clerk. The hours waiting to leave we're debilitating and did not help postnatal blues. This needs to be fixed and then you would probably get five stars! An extra secretary in this ward could save thousands of bed hours and free up the midwife for patient care. (p.s. take some of the stored equipment out of the assessment room!) So in conclusion midwives excellent, doctors and admin could be improved.