"Great Antenatal care very disappointing..."

We had chosen Kings because of the excellent treatment I had received at the early pregnancy unit. My antenatal care continued to be amazing with supportive midwives and an efficient service at the Harris Birthright Centre. The maternal assessment unit were brilliant when I had a scare so I felt was in safe hands and that this was a hospital that was well run and organised.

However I feel that my experience and view of Kings has drastically changed with the care and treatment I received during labour and on the postnatal ward.

I have known real pain after an ovarian cyst twisted and cut off my blood supply and morphine didn't help with the pain. During my time on the antenatal ward (because my waters had broken) my repeated requests for pain relief were ignored and it took my partner to have a firm word with the midwives for me to receive gas and air after several hours of contractions before they knew I was over 4cm dialated and my baby was facing the wrong way round. Why wasn't this investigated earlier? Why weren't staff concerned about the amount of pain I was in?

Secondly the treatment I received on the postnatal ward was abysmal not due to individual staffs conduct or care but due to the lack of communication and organisation between different agencies and teams and apparent error on their "system".

We were suppose to be discharged on the 3rd January but due to under- staffing and that we were not on the system due to an ICT error we were unable to be seen because there was no "baby doctor" that could see the baby to enable us to be discharged.

On the 4th January we still hadn't been seen by the newborn hearing specialist, because we weren't on the system, or the "baby doctor" because we weren't on the system. After I hadn't received my lunch because I had been forgotten my partner went and had another firm word with the midwife and within 2 hours we were seen by everyone and discharged.

The whole experience was very stressful, exacerbated by the fact myself and my baby were unwell and wanting to settle into being a family at home.

I would not return to Kings to have another baby or use it's services for any other medical needs.

I have however experienced fantastic care at their sister hospital Princess Royal that ensured that I was well cared for after my episiotomy stitches came undone and an infection developed alongside assessment of my baby's jaundice.