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"Rude reception staff in EPAGU, no sympathy for..."

About: St Thomas' Hospital / Maternity care

I understand miscarriage is very common and the staff no doubt see it all the time. However, as a woman going through it, you expect some amount of sympathy and care for your experience and your pain. I experienced none of that. For one thing, no one ever answered the phone in EPAGU when I tried to call for advice. It doesn’t accept messages either. I went in 3 times and was always treated with complete apathy. The receptionists didn’t even acknowledge me standing there and continued doing whatever they were doing for a few minutes. In terms of advice I received when I was there it was always about what they legally couldn’t do and nothing about what I as a person might actually want to know and hear. On my final visit, they couldn’t even find my files and didn’t know why I was there - a scan to confirm my miscarriage. The whole thing has been so insensitive I don’t think I’ll be coming by if I am fortunate enough to get pregnant again.

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Responses

Response from St Thomas' Hospital 5 years ago
St Thomas' Hospital
Submitted on 24/08/2018 at 17:48
Published on nhs.uk at 18:16


Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We are so sorry that you had such a negative experience at the unit and we would like to apologise for this. We will speak with the reception team about the importance of providing women with a warm welcome and treating them with sensitivity during what is a very difficult time for many women. You should have been acknowledge when you arrived. We are sorry to hear that the advice wasn’t as helpful or empathetic as you had hoped and that this was further compounded by the loss of your notes at your final visit and staff not being aware of why you had come in. We will speak with the team about how we can learn from this. If you would like us to look into this further please do contact out PALS Team on 020 718 8801 or email pals@gstt.nhs.uk and they will be able to liaise with the department on your behalf

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