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Shocking, under staffed and not patient centred at...

Story from nhs.uk

"Shocking, under staffed and not patient centred at..."

About: Russells Hall Hospital

What I liked

My individual midwife during birth was professional.

What could be improved

Pretty much everything else. Was kept waiting for 14 days for planned induction. Had to ring the ward up to 4 times a day during this time and ask if a bed was free. The stress of this was very upsetting. Never spoke to the same member of staff twice, no-one seemed to have any idea how many times you had called. Some staff (senior) were rude and unhelpful. One even reduced me to tears and was not the slightlest bit concerned about this. Luckily I went into labour natuarally and had a very speedy delivery (3 hrs). Then had to stay in for two days due to prob with baby. Lots of pressure was put on us to go home from midwives even though doc wanted us to stay. Once given all clear we were pretty much forced out within minutes!!

Anything else?

The unit is over subscribed and although some midwives are lovely they are obviously under immense pressure. There is a total lack of communication between consultants, senior staff and midwives.

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Responses

Response from Russells Hall Hospital 12 years ago
Russells Hall Hospital

Submitted on 16/04/2012 at 18:11
Published on nhs.uk on 17/04/2012 at 04:00

Firstly, congratulations on the birth of your baby. Thank you for taking the time to post feedback about your care while staying on the Maternity Department. We welcome all feedback and would like to assure you that all comments are taken seriously and acted upon as part of our ongoing commitment to improving patient experience.

It is difficult to comment on your specific case without your own details and reviewing your medical notes.

However, speaking in general terms, if a planned induction cannot go ahead on the day it was booked for, we do ask mums-to-be to call on the morning of the planned date to see if there is a bed available. The lead midwife and consultant will prioritise planned inductions based on clinical need. If there isn’t a bed available, we ask mums-to-be to come to our day assessment unit for baby to be monitored.

The unit remains a popular choice and has seen a dramatic increase in the number of women choosing to have their babies at Russells Hall Hospital.

We have been working for some time to seek appropriate agreement from Primary Care Trust commissioners to temporarily reduce the numbers of women coming to Russells Hall Hospital while we look into ways of increasing capacity and staffing within our Maternity Department.

We would only discharge a new mum and her baby when it is safe to do so and we can only apologise if you felt your stay was not as long as you had hoped.

We are upset to hear of your experience of our midwifery staff. There is never an excuse for rude behaviour or poor communication and we will ensure Matron for the Maternity Department feeds your comments back to the staff so we can improve our service.

We would ask you to put your concerns in writing to the Matron who will be more than happy to investigate your case in more detail. The address is:

Maternity Department, 2nd Floor East Wing, Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, DY1 2HQ.

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