Share review of Whittington Hospital

Whittington Hospital 2021-02-16 Person 2 5 0

I recently had a termination and experienced some complications after. I was repeatedly told by different NHS health services to go to a&e when I experienced symptoms. However when I attended I was made to feel like I was making a big fuss about nothing. I was referred from a&e to the Betty Mansel ward and was told I would receive a call for a scan. I wasn’t called the day after like I was told to expect and when they did finally call I was told I wasn’t offered a scan and shunned away although I was heavily bleeding still and my gp had told me I must have a scan. After feeling like a huge bother and with my mental state not great I didn’t follow it up. However when I started to experience more distressing symptoms and bleeding I had to go back to a&e and finally got a scan with the ward. They placed me on two sets of pills and had a rather insensitive conversation about my symptoms, with little sympathy or understanding. I later found out from my gp that I had been placed on completely inappropriate medication which wasn’t meant to be taken as prescribed, and I ended up with horrendous acne which didn’t help matters. I then had to change medications once again. During my visits at the Betty mansel ward I experienced many awkward situations in the waiting rooms such as comments (across a busy room full of pregnant women ) like ‘how many weeks are you?’ , ‘is this your first one?’ Obviously not a question you want to answer when you’ve just had a termination. Having a termination was an extremely hard decision, and I feel my guilt was entirely enhanced by bodies reaction and recovery process. I feel the hospital staff I came into contact with had no real understand of the physical and mental health a woman goes through post abortion. Not once was I given clear advice. I felt that once my baby was gone I was no longer important and I at times felt punished for going through the process. I would hope that my words mean there is better training on post abortion health from especially the Betty mansel ward.