"Not a pleasant experience."

What I liked

The staff were all very reassuring and made myself and my partner feel at ease whenever we were approached.

What could be improved

My partner was given a referral to the maternity day unit and then seen by a docter and admitted for observations and an ultrasound scan to the littlington ward.

She was monitored in littlington over the next 24hours, but the scan was not undertaken, we were kept hanging around until the Docters ward visit until 21:30, we were told we could not go until that point, then at 21:30 the nurse informed us that she would sign us off to go home and an appointment would be made with the ultrasound and we gave my mobile as a point of contact. The next day came and after a call to the ultrasound department we were told they had no referral for a scan for us and that the Docters didn't know how the system worked.

We then contacted our local midwife and the day care ward and eventually got a call back from ultrasound saying we would get an appointment for a scan but given no time and we were told it wouldn't even be today! So thanks to the staff at Eastbourne we are confident that Mother and baby are fine, but if my wife goes into labour we have no idea if any complications will effect the delivery which were hoping to have at Crowborough birthing unit.

I feel it is disgusting the way we have had to chase round for something which I feel should have been taken care of when my wife was in hospital, instead we are left hanging with concerns. It strongly has confirmed in the both of us that we would not be confident in having our baby at Eastbourne and would seek any other alternative facility before going to Eastbourne, which is a pity as some of the staff members we have met are superb, but as a whole entity this hospital seems not to work.

Anything else?

We are both fingers crossed we can have our baby at Crowborough.

I just wished they could have completed the scan on the day my wife was in hospital, or given us a time and date for scan.