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"Bad experience on last day of stay"

About: Russells Hall Hospital

I don't want to go to detail about treatment, I just want to say 2013 was the best and worst year for me. I turned 40 in 2013, I also found out that I was pregnant after we have been trying for 13 years. my pregnancy was going wonderful and troublefree up to 23 and half weeks, I started having complications. I contacted triage and went in and was admitted, discharged after 2 days and re-admitted on the same evening I was discharged, I was at Russell's Hall maternity unit for 6 days and have to say the midwives who looked after me were very kind, helpful and informative. Sadly, on the 7th day of my stay and due to the complications I was having I had a stillbirth, my baby boy was delivered at 2am. The reason for this review is mainly for the last day of our stay, my husband and I were very emotional, and could not think straight and we could not believe what had just happened, we had been waiting to have our baby for years. The midwife who looked after up on the last day was very nice and polite, although when we expected to receive the highest standard of care considering what we had just been through we had the opposite. We felt neglected. The midwife who was asked to prepare the discharge papers for me and the baby was rushing around not knowing what she was doing, we specified earlier in the morning that we wanted the burial on the same day due to our religion, after speaking to the midwife many times in the day stressing how important this was to us, she replied and told us that she had never prepared discharge papers before. We were extremely disappointment that when we in our most vulnerable and emotional state expected the staff to up the standard of care, we did not receive this on the last day. I was discharged at about 7pm on the same day, we had to arrange burial next day as the papers where given to us late, luckily by the time I was discharged the midwifes changed shifts again and I had the same midwife I have during the delivery who was excellent and caring and gave me all the paperwork I needed, cant remember more than half of this as I was crying throughout. One other point to make is the midwife explained that I would receive an post natel appointment in about 6 weeks time, I made many calls to the hospital after 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks even went to see my GP twice about this, I wanted to know anything anyone could tell me about why this happened and my test results and to know what kind of care I would receive in the future, it is now 21 week since I was at Russells Hall and my appointment is tomorrow. I am sure not everyone waits this long for an appointment.

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Responses

Response from Russells Hall Hospital 10 years ago
Russells Hall Hospital
Submitted on 13/02/2014 at 11:04
Published on nhs.uk on 14/02/2014 at 03:00


Thank you for taking the time to give us feedback about our maternity services. Please accept our sincerest condolences on the tragic loss of your son. We are so sorry that we let you down at such an upsetting time; it would never be our intention to cause such distress. We always strive to give our patients the very best possible care, and we are sorry that you and your husband felt this didn’t happen on the last day of your stay. We would welcome the opportunity to investigate your experience in further detail. We would urge you to come in and talk to us about the things that went wrong so we can learn lessons and make sure no other women have to go through the same experience as you. If you would like to come in and speak to us please contact matron’s secretary on 01384 456111 extension 1317 to arrange a meeting with the matron responsible for the Maternity Department. If you prefer, you could contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on freephone 0800 0730510 who will be happy to look into your concerns on your behalf.

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