St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

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PJ89
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St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby PJ89 » Tue Dec 26, 2023 11:17 am

Hello all, we found out recently that we’re going to be expecting our first one in July/August 2024.
We live closest to St George (we live just off Northcote) and have booked our first appointment with them in early Jan but the CQC report on their maternity ward feels quite damning.
https://www.cqc.org.uk/press-release/cq ... rnity-care
We wanted to check if anyone has had any recent (2023) experiences of having a baby at St George and recommend us to stick to them (maybe they have pulled up their socks) or consider St Thomas or C&W? Other Google reviews for both St Thomas and C&W are mixed too. Are we overthinking this?
Any advice would be helpful.
Thank you.
First time parents.
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AnywhereBut
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby AnywhereBut » Thu Dec 28, 2023 3:32 pm

we too used St George’s as closest and did not consider ourselves ‘needy’ enough to go elsewhere. We deeply regret it. Not since 2023, but maternity units don’t change their culture overnight. Would go Chelsea and Westminster if we could go back, or Thomas’s.
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just seen this
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby just seen this » Thu Dec 28, 2023 3:46 pm

Hello,

just seen this .

Was wondering if anyone else has had a similar issues.
Or anything positive regarding St Georges maternity?

Many Thanks,
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Lorhnial
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby Lorhnial » Tue Jan 02, 2024 6:45 am

Hi there
Congratulations on your news! I have 2022 experience of St George’s and to be honest I only had positive experiences there. The midwives were good albeit I didn’t ever see the same one - I didn’t mind that though. We had a couple of emergencies throughout the pregnancy and each time I was seen quickly, and the midwives were kind and reassuring.
Post birth the ward was a little busy (I think four beds to a room) but I only stayed one night before being allowed home. Again the midwives and doctors were mostly helpful and responsive.
For a previous pregnancy we were at C&W and we didn’t have the best experience.
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Asm25
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby Asm25 » Tue Jan 02, 2024 7:57 am

Hello there,
I had my daughter at St George’s not long before the report. The building is tired, but the equipment and team were beyond phenomenal with us. I was a very nervous second time mum and they really really supported me. Having had my son two years earlier at kings (amazingly high tech and flashy building, but the whole thing was an absolute disaster and ended up being an awful birth due to human error on many parts), I would say this: all hospitals have good days and bad days. There is no such thing as the perfect maternity ward, even if you opt to go private (if it goes wrong you end up in the main hospital with main care anyway). Follow your gut. If you like the midwives you meet, trust that the care is good. The thing I would take into account is geography, as I don’t think you’d want to be stuck in rush hour traffic when having contractions…! You can always move. Hope that’s some help and good luck wherever you go. A
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Maternity crisis
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby Maternity crisis » Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:45 am

Sadly, there is a national shortage of midwives that makes maternity care very unsafe. If you google this, you will see the issue. A friend retrained to become a midwife recently and she has gone into work the day after wisdom teeth removal, when in pain and on a lot of Tramadol. When I asked what on earth she was doing, she said that her hospital were meant to have 12 midwives on duty but had only five. If she didn't go in, they would have four. Better she was there to do the baseline jobs to free up the well staff for the more complex roles. She has also commented that the pressures such desperate understaffing cause mean midwives burn out, and are leaving.

Despite all of this, trainee midwives were pressed into service in the pandemic in the exact same way trainee nurses were... but unlike trainee nurses, they were not paid for it. We treat midwives, nationally, very badly. It is not valued as much as nursing, yet midwives are simply nurses with further training.

It's not a St George's problem. It's a national shortage of midwives problem, and the only way to fix it would be a generous bursary through training, and then a golden hello for every midwife who completed training and worked in the NHS for at least 3 years post-qual. They have the same issue with social workers, incidentally. We have allowed the most core professions to quietly collapse, in intake terms. This has been predictable, and is now here.

If there is any way at all you can possibly afford it, I would look into private care, or having a doula (check quals and experience very, very carefully). The safety issue is because there aren't enough midwives to properly monitor women in labour, so issues aren't picked up on swiftly enough and interventions can happen too late. Yes, if anything does go wrong with private you end up in the same clinical care as NHS, but you end up there more quickly because you get the dedicated attention at an early enough stage. So I would seek private care in an NHS hospital first, and then look at a private midwife (even if not able to intervene in the birth, she could monitor and swiftly raise the alarm if needed) or, more probably, doula.

It's horrific, as someone who strongly believes in the moral imperative of universal health care, free at the point of access, that I am telling a parent to seek private care. But I grew up in Shropshire, and what happened with the maternity scandal there (at a time when they had enough staff - they just had a massive prejudice against medical interventions in birth!) there's also a moral imperative to ensure women and babies are safe in the birthing process.

Finally, yes, Chelsea and Westminster are a good hospital, in my experience, as someone who's had surgery there a couple of times in the past few years. They're rated Good for maternity. The West Middlesex is also not too far away, is part of the same Trust, and they're actually rated Outstanding. I wouldn't be happy to have a baby in a unit rated Inadequate for the most basic issues around safety and cleanliness.
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby Maternity crisis » Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:51 am

Sorry, for clarity: the WM is rated Outstanding specifically for maternity care.

And I am saying that if a private birth is not affordable, consider a private midwife there in a support capacity (she won't be allowed to work as a midwife in a hospital she's not insured for) with a contract specifying she is there only as a doula, or if that's also unaffordable, I would still want a doula.

And I would want that wherever the birth happened. Because you can have the best culture and the best cleaners possible, but if you don't have enough midwifery staff, monitoring women in labour will be difficult.
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Wandsworth21
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby Wandsworth21 » Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:57 am

Hi there,

I had my first baby in St George’s in May 2023 and we were quite happy with the hospital. Pre natal care was good and we felt supported through the birthing experience. As one of the other posts mentions, wards are crowded, but they are in other maternities too. I think that unfortunately the care you get very much depends on how busy the maternity is when you get there and is not something you can plan for. We absolutely valued the closeness of the hospital to our house (we live in a similar area to you), meaning that when we had to stay in hospital for 3 more nights after the birth, it was easy for my parents to come and visit and bring things (mostly clothes for my partner who stayed with me throughout).

When I look at my mum group where 7 of us gave birth in the same hospital, for 2 of those births the staff were not up to scratch (long story short but basically not believing the women they were in labour until “too late”), whereas the other 5 seemed to be happy with the care they got. Three others were in C&W - one of the experiences there was not great as the mum struggled to get any help / attention during the night after a C-section meaning she felt very helpless and couldn’t care for her baby.

From my experience the most important thing is somebody with you who can advocate for you and ask questions / not let things go / follow up. In my case my partner (despite no medical training) fulfilled that role really well. I hadn’t considered a doula / private midwife, but think I will give that some thought if we have a second one.

I hope that provides you with some perspective. Happy to answer more specific questions if you would like to message me privately.
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PJ89
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby PJ89 » Fri Jan 05, 2024 12:32 am

Thank you all very much. Super helpful and led us to do a bit more research. We had our first appointment at St George today and it went fine. We’ve been allotted to Topaz Balham midwives (but can’t find any reviews online for them, guess we will see when we meet them).

That said, we are researching and considering doula / private midwife to help as per above comments. Do you have any recommendations? There are so many online…!

Thanks again !
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby Guest user » Mon Jan 08, 2024 7:13 am

Sorry to hear about the state of Al these maternity units across the country. Fortunately for me ( as we have had our last child a couple of years ago) i am past the stage of making babies.

But I am so dismayed at the various reports of not enough midwives and maternity care. Really can we please all VOTE OUT The CURRENT GOVERNMENT who is responsible for this. When my children were born 3 and 12 years ago, this was not a concern. Care at George’s wasn’t amazing, but I didn’t actually worry about the safety of myself or my child, just the comfort level. That now seems a luxury. It doesn’t have to be this way.
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elijahnelson
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby elijahnelson » Mon Jan 15, 2024 6:43 am

PJ89 wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2023 11:17 am Hello all, we found out recently that we’re going to be expecting our first one in July/August 2024.
We live closest to St George (we live just off Northcote) and have booked our first appointment with them in early Jan but the CQC report on their maternity ward feels quite damning.
https://www.cqc.org.uk/press-release/cq ... rnity-care
mapquest
We wanted to check if anyone has had any recent (2023) experiences of having a baby at St George and recommend us to stick to them (maybe they have pulled up their socks) or consider St Thomas or C&W? Other Google reviews for both St Thomas and C&W are mixed too. Are we overthinking this?
Any advice would be helpful.
Thank you.
First time parents.
If possible, request a tour of the maternity facilities at the hospitals you are considering. This can give you a feel for the environment and the level of care provided.
 
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marinaberg
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby marinaberg » Sun Jan 28, 2024 2:41 pm

Lorhnial wrote: Tue Jan 02, 2024 6:45 am Hi there
Congratulations on your news! I have 2022 experience of St George’s and to be honest I only had positive experiences there. The midwives were good albeit I didn’t ever see the same one - I didn’t mind that though. We had a couple of emergencies throughout the pregnancy and each time I was seen quickly, and the midwives were kind and reassuring.
Post birth the ward was a little busy (I think four beds to a room) but I only stayed one night before being allowed home. Again the midwives and doctors were mostly helpful and responsive.
For a previous pregnancy we were at C&W and we didn’t have the best experience.
Same experience here. I had my baby back in May 2023 at St. George's Hospital and it was really positive overall. The midwives were all so nice and friendly, even though like you mentioned, I never saw the same one twice. After giving birth I stayed at the hospital for two nights, and everyone who worked there was super helpful during my stay.

A friend of mine actually worked at St. George's for 6 years, but after dealing with everything during Covid she just couldn't handle it anymore. She ended up leaving to do private care instead. From what I can tell, I don't think much has changed at the hospital since I was there last May.
 
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muddyboots
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby muddyboots » Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:27 pm

Slightly off topic, but close enough…
Does anyone have any experience of the gynaecology department?
I’ve been referred for a procedure and a bit worried.
Would love to have some feedback!
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SW4Mummy1
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby SW4Mummy1 » Wed Feb 14, 2024 11:24 am

I had 2x kids at George's in 2018 and 2021 and the labour care was good, in some cases outstanding. Most of the midwives I had were exceptional. The aftercare for both was awful. They actually took my baby out of my room without my knowledge at one stage and I almost died of shock when I turned around and she gone out of her crib. I'm using Chelsea & Westminster for my third (pregnant again). Good luck x 
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Re: St Georges Hospital - CQC Maternity report

Postby SW4Mummy1 » Tue Mar 12, 2024 11:32 am

I had two babies at Georges and the delivery staff were amazing but the aftercare was AWFUL awful. One of the nurses literally ripped the cannula out of my hand because we disagreed about whether I needed it. When I went for a shower they took my baby out of the room without telling me so I came back to a empty crib... they also threatened to keep her if I left (I was desperate to home to my son). I wouldn't go back. I'm pregnant with baby 3 now and going to C&W. It is a bit further but I think worth the risk given the recent report. My doula said Georges are often understaffed and frequently close their baby units as a result, which means you would be redirected to the next available hospital. I hope this helps x 
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