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"Apprehensive about delivering at this hospital!"

About: North Middlesex Hospital

This is my first pregnancy and so far it's been less than stress free (36+2 weeks today). I booked in late at this hospital after moving from Portsmouth and I was around 25 weeks gone. Booking in was awful, staff at reception were very rude and treated me horribly for wasting their time and questioning me what I was even doing there? I had a GP referral and they couldn't seem to comprehend that I was pregnant and needed to register. That was my first bad experience. The second bad experience was when I had two episodes of reduced movements and had to go to triage. Triage at this hospital is honestly the worst place I've ever visited in my life! The first time filled me with dread as there was only one midwife and a very rude student accompanying them and tending to a huge amount of ladies, it was so bad that we witnessed two ladies give birth in reception in front of us! Nobody attended to them and we were just left to our own devices. I had to wait 4 hours in reception (total of 8 hours spent in triage first time) for my maternity notes and the one midwife kept rushing around and disappearing leaving us on our own without anybody tending to triage. After monitoring I was told I was dehydrated as baby had higher heart rate, let's just say being be hydrated was impossible as i ended up vomiting several times from the amount of water they forced me to drink...! The second time we attended triage was slightly better as it was empty, plenty of staff but instead of taking care of me (the only patient) I was made to wait 5 hours till they stopped chatting and finally got me a doctor and handed me back my notes. The third bad experience happens yesterday (4.12.15) at my 36 weeks scan to check baby's position and general wellbeing. My appointment was at 12:30 and after waiting 3 hours i found out after enquiringly that though I was booked in I wasn't on anybody's list so they wouldn't have even seen me if I hadn't had made a fuss. I was then blamed by the sonographer in charge (who was very rude) that they were very busy, it wasn't their problem and that I can wait if I want to or do whatever... when I asked what I am to do if I don't get seen they just shrugged their shoulders! After a long argument, awful wait and raising a complaint with a head receptionist at the scan reception I was finally seen at 3pm...! The sonographer even had the cheek to blame me for them not being able to have a sip of water and for me making other people wait and they made mistakes in their paperwork because they had to deal with me even though it wasn't my mistake. No apology nothing. To top it off the sonographer doing my scan barely spoke English and gave me mixed messages about my baby's well being, saying she's fine but she's not really as she's measuring too small and I need extra monitoring which they can't book me in for and I need to do that myself whenever I see my midwife as they don't have time for me. Honestly I have no idea what my delivery will be like based on these experiences.

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Responses

Response from North Middlesex Hospital 8 years ago
North Middlesex Hospital
Submitted on 16/12/2015 at 10:07
Published on nhs.uk on 17/12/2015 at 01:32


Thank you for your feedback.

From your experience I can see why you would be apprehensive about your delivery.

I am the head of midwifery, gslevin@nhs.net and would welcome an email from you so that we can discuss any questions you may wish answered.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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