"We felt lied to by Stoke Mandeville Hospital"

At 41 weeks pregnant, I was told that I would not be allowed to have my baby at Stoke Mandeville Hospital (SMH).

I was referred to SMH via a letter from my GP in October 2009 at my request. I phoned SMH to confirm this on in December 2009 as we had not recieved any confirmation. I first spoke to a midwife about how things work at SMH - a midwfie from the Delivery Ward and she gave me all the contact numbers and told me to contact the nurses office as they would be able to tell me if we were on the system. I did this and was told that we were on the system to have our baby at SMH and that is typical that no letter of confirmation is sent. So I thought all was well. At no point was I asked why I had been refered or who my consultant was or that I could not come to SMH because I was from Milton Keynes. Both the midwife and the nurse's office lady knew I was being reffered from Milton Keynes.

On at the beginning of January 2010, I had some bleeding so we phoned the delivery suite at SMH as instructed and came in to be checked. Thankfully nothing was wrong. The staff were all lovely (thanks to Tannette, Wilma and Patty) and were excited to be going to SMH because all the facilities looked so nice (and because the staff were too).

The next day, we were told that we were not on the system and that SMH would not accept us for an induction appointment. I cannot begin to describe how angry this made me. Somebody somewhere at SMH has given us false information - either in December when I phoned to confirm that we were booked in or when my community midwife tried to book me in for induction. My community midwife and my husband had both been in contact with the same midwife I orinigally spoke to in December about this but she only reiterated procedure that no one from outside the area was being accepted.

We felt lied to by SMH. Why were told we were on the system when we were not or why were we then told we were not on the system when we were? One of these scenarios must be true making the other a lie.

I felt that Stoke Mandeville Hospital put local hospital politics before my welfare.