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"Fertility clinic, early pregancy unit and miscarriage"

About: Pilgrim Hospital / Gynaecology

(as the patient),

I was treated over the space of over 2 years at the fertility clinic at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston and was disgusted that I was expected to wait in a waiting room surrounded by pregnant couples and the literature that related to them. There was no sensitivity or compassion for the situation I, and many other couples, were faced with. Whilst the staff were always very compassionate and friendly I found that with my appointments their time managment was awful with our average wait being over an hour for each appointment.

I felt at all stages of our investigations and treatment that we were 'fobbed off' with the quick, easy and cheap answers whislt I felt that no one seemed truly interested in helping us or being honest with us.

Following a positive pregnancy test I was sent to the EPU with a suspected ectopic pregnancy following fertility treatment and to start treatment was acceptable. However, following confirmation of my miscarriage we were left to sit in a room which was frequented by couples who were celebrating healthy scans whilst we were seemingly forgotten for nearly 4 hours. When we finally tracked down a registrar to speak to us they confessed that we had been forgotten. A situation I found absolutely disgraceful.

We were dragged back and forth to the hospital a number of times before being advised that we could have undertaken the blood tests a lot nearer to home saving me both time, money and the distress of visiting the EPU.

I also feel that the terminology the NHS use around miscarrige is insensitive and there was no support offered to us at all - nothing about the support offered by organisations such as the Miscarriage Association nor any form of counselling.

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Responses

Response from Jennie Negus, Head of Patient Experience, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust 11 years ago
Jennie Negus
Head of Patient Experience,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Submitted on 30/07/2012 at 16:39
Published on Care Opinion at 20:25


picture of Jennie Negus

I am so very sorry for what was clearly a very distressing time and I don't think that anything that I say, all this time later will do much to amend this. I can't give you back a better experience and especially at such a traumatic and worrying time.

What I can give you, which I hope will mean something, is an assurance that we have listened to you. I contacted the Clinical Director for Children and Women's services and the Head of Midwifery to share your story with them and ask for their comments. They were equally upset and undertook to ensure all members of the team were told of your experience. The maternity block at Pilgrim Hospital has recently had some refurbishments and this includes relocating some of the clinics based there to enable more room and more privacy which we hope will make a real difference to women.

Your experience was extremely traumatic in itself and being 'fobbed off' and forgotten and not offered miscarriage support only added to this at a time when you needed that support more than ever.

I am so sorry and whilst this offer is over a year late I would like to say that if you would like to talk to us more about what happened then we would be pleased to hear from you; e-mail us at@ patient.involvement@ulh.nhs.uk

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and please once again accept my apologies.

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