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OT - NHS across the country
This is slightly OT so forgive me. I hope you can help me.
I am going back to work as a teacher next week and have been given some Year 13 (18 years) General Studies lessons. Anyway I am covering a number of different topics, one of which is "NHS - postcode lottery?".
What I would like is some real life case studies of your experience with the NHS. I am concentrating on three main subjects:
1) Availability of chemotherapy drugs - were you/friend/relative denied certain drugs that were available privately or elsewhere in the country?
2) Birth centres - did you have access to homebirth or midwife-led unit if you wanted it? Did you have access to a birthpool if you wanted it?
3) Special care babies - if your baby needed special care was it available at your local hospital? Did you and/or LO need to be transferred?
I do not want to go back over old threads as those people posted in privacy. If you post here I will assume you are ok for me to use your story. They will, of course, remain anomalous and I won't even mention this site. I just need some real-life case studies.
Thank you very much in advance,![:\](https://forum.madeformums.com/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
)
H xx
I am going back to work as a teacher next week and have been given some Year 13 (18 years) General Studies lessons. Anyway I am covering a number of different topics, one of which is "NHS - postcode lottery?".
What I would like is some real life case studies of your experience with the NHS. I am concentrating on three main subjects:
1) Availability of chemotherapy drugs - were you/friend/relative denied certain drugs that were available privately or elsewhere in the country?
2) Birth centres - did you have access to homebirth or midwife-led unit if you wanted it? Did you have access to a birthpool if you wanted it?
3) Special care babies - if your baby needed special care was it available at your local hospital? Did you and/or LO need to be transferred?
I do not want to go back over old threads as those people posted in privacy. If you post here I will assume you are ok for me to use your story. They will, of course, remain anomalous and I won't even mention this site. I just need some real-life case studies.
Thank you very much in advance,
) H xx
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Replies
Hope its some help.
1. i didnt get a choice of where i had my baby- i was told to have him in hospital
2. i wasnt told i could have a water birth- i had to find out for myself and ask in advance
3. i had to beg to be referred to a physiotherapist because of my SPD
4. midwife told me i was too happy to be in labour so sent me home- without checkin if i was dilated (i was) then had to be rushed in to hospital 2hrs later by ambulance lol...
but the midwives and care i received in hospital was absolutely amazing, i loved it.... Frimley Park Hospital- Surrey
oh.. there was a special care baby unit but i didnt need it thankfully...
[Modified by: Sophie_Zaki on September 17, 2009 01:05 AM]
This year the whole set up is changing, so instead of both midwife and consultant let wards on both sites Stoke will be consultant and Wycombe will be MW. This is not quite in effect yet, but it means that come November if you are low risk so at Wycombe, and it suddenly goes a bit wrong they have to transfer you. It also means if you think you may need an epidural you will need to be booked in at Stoke
I gave birth at Wycombe. They have one labour ward, and one room has a pool which I got to use. There is also an inflatable pool (they bought this before installing the other pool to see if it was worth it) so if the other is in use you can use the inflatable.
My community mw was good, she talked through options and suggested a homebirth (no, ta!)
Antenatal classes was ok- the mw who took those did a tour of Wycombe at the same time and went through natural births, intervention, water births.... I felt pretty well informed
I will say, just to confuse the issue slightly, we actually decided to use another hospital altogether which comes under Berkshire, but changed our minds. They have a labour ward and a birth centre, and the birth centre is very different. It doesn't have beds but beanbags and foam couchy things which is quite cool
Something else to bear in mind re postcode lotteries- in my area we are entitled to a 12 week and 20 week scan, and they can tell you the baby's sex (not a guarantee). I know in Bath they only do a 20 week scan on NHS, and in Herts and Beds will not tell you the sex xx