Community Services - Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 2013-12-12 Person 1 5 0

- The midwives when I met them were very nice and helpful. - The midwives seemed frustrated by the whole process also - If I didn't require anything unusual or extra, things ran relatively smoothly - The key issue is communication and I believe it can be easily solved - On the 2 occassions where I have tried to phone the midwives it has been a nightmare. The first time I tried the number provided to me on the front of my green notes and a lady answered on a Friday saying I had to phone back on the Monday and that she rented that room in Walton Health Centre on the Friday and there was no way for me to leave a message nor would she transfer me to the Walton Health Centre switchboard (it then became clear that the midwives aren't there on a Friday but I wasn't informed of this before). In the end I had to go through to St Peters Hospital to obtain an appointment for a bad back and they were very helpful. The second time I needed to book an extra blood pressure check. I tried the 2 numbers I had been given repeatedly all Monday morning and part of the afternoon and the lines were either busy or no answer. Through desperation I tried the triage number and they recommended I contact the reception and leave a message so I left a message with the Walton Health Centre reception and they would contact the community midwifes themselves. I called the Walton Health Centre reception and when I asked if I would receive a call back that day I was told 'probably'. I received a message the Tuesday lunchtime advising to call back quickly or they wouldn't be able to accommodate me as they were busy. I found this slightly ironic as I had been trying to contact them for a day and a half. When I did speak with them it was clear that the number I had been provided on the front of my green notes was not the best number to contact them on and that there was no voicemail service to leave a message for them. Also, they had received a message from the hospital but no message from the Walton Health Centre reception. This is shocking that you have to leave a message through a reception that looks after a building that they rent a room from for 4 days of the week. Why not just have an answerphone message so they can pick messages up as and when? - My appointments have been split between a GP and a midwife every 2 weeks at the latter stage of the pregnancy. If things all appear normal is this really necessary? It provides no continuity and I have seen a doctor who clearly didn't feel this was his area of expertise. Immediately after my midwife appointment I was told to book a gp appointment for 2 weeks later. There was only one day I could do due to work commitments and there were no female doctors available so I went with the male doctor. I do not mind that but it was clear that he didn't do many antenatal appointments and it would have been better for all and saved time for all if my appointment had been with the midwifes. - On one appointment the midwifes had still not received my bloodwork back from the hospital from my previous appointment which had been about a month before. While I was there about 20 mins of time was wasted chasing up the blood results. Through 2 phonecalls the midwife was advised that they didn't have my bloodwork and she advised me that due to a new system that was wasting everyones time she was frequently being told this only to find that they did have the bloodwork. We were just about to do the bloodwork again and she was able to get through to someone else and they 'found' the bloodwork. Luckily all was fine but what if there had been a problem with the results- would the delay in receiving the bloodwork have caused me problems? - I hope from this it can be seen that some easy steps could be taken to improve the whole system. Re-looking at how the bloodwork and results are transferred between departments and improving the communication options such as a simple answerphone which patients would have piece of mind knowing would be listened to within 24 hours rather than having to leave random messages where you are left with a clear uncertainty that your message may not be passed on.