"Hospital feedback"

Thank you for your feedback. We were sorry to learn that your experience was not as positive as we would hope on Ward 65 here at Saint Mary’s Hospital. It is important to us that comments are heard and seen as an opportunity for us to make changes and improvements wherever possible.

In response to your comment, we do acknowledge that we are experiencing some delays for some women who are waiting to give birth to their baby following induction of labour. In Greater Manchester there is an overall increase in the number of women who require their labours to be induced and this is for a number of reasons, including factors associated with the mother’s health or with the baby’s health such as reduced fetal movements. We know that this increase in demand is also being experienced in other maternity units as it relates to changes in national guidance and the advice women are given as their pregnancy progresses. It is important to the team at Saint Mary’s Hospital that women are given appropriate advice and are monitored closely in the period of time leading up to the safe transfer of each woman to the delivery unit for her labour to be accelerated. This can take several days and the staff appreciate this can be a stressful time and so good communication is paramount. We would like to apologise that our communication was not effective in being able to give you confidence that we knew why you were attending the ward or to explain in detail why you could not be transferred sooner. One of the reasons why it may have appeared that your position on the list changed would be because each day the clinical prioritisation of women waiting would be reviewed and some women may require an earlier transfer due to changes with either themselves or their baby. It may help you to know that the clinical team at Saint Mary’s Hospital is planning to meet with the senior maternity teams at the other units in Manchester to look at the impact these changes are having on women who require their labour to be induced to see what can be put in place to improve the experience for all women in Manchester. We would like to thank you for your feedback and to assure you that the safety of you and your baby is paramount to us. We have shared your feedback with the clinical team to make sure your experience is used to enable us to improve our communication and to consider how we improve the service in the future.