Round-up of health and hospital issues in Maidstone and Pembury Problems mount at Pembury Hospital
ALEAD campaigner againstMaidstone Hospital losing main mater- nity services to the new hospital at Pembury had only sixweeks to wait before his own family tested the change. DENNIS FOWLE, president of the DownsMail and chairman of
THEgoodnewsisour family hasalovelylit- tleAmelia and a proud first-time and healthy mum in Laura Procter, who lives in Maid- stone. Butmany campaigning fears of the last few
years cametrue – andthere are significant les- sons and concerns for Maidstone and Tun- bridgeWellsNHS Trust. Laura’s first ‘in labour’ phone call to Pem- bury. She was told labour was not far enough advanced – but Laura andhermother thought otherwise. They set off – and within 10 min- utes of arriving in Pembury reception Laura’s waters broke. Laura says contraction painswere immense
until a swift epidural injection. “What would have happened had I been at home,with that journey still in front of us?” she asks. With such long journeys Maidstonewomen are not going to hang around – even if that suits an overstretched hospital. The car journey from the centre of Maid- stone at about 4.30pm on a Friday took 45 minutes – twice as long as the trust indicated in its consultation. The family talks of even tougher return journeys at peak times – up to 90 minutes. Over a fewdays this becomes im- mensely challenging.
Operation system
appears ‘in chaos’ ONE Maidstone man needing an urgent collar bone and ten- dons operation was told by his consultant at Maidstone Hospi- tal to expect details for a Pem- bury operation in the next couple of days. Hewaited, kept phoning and was finally given a booking for 14 days later. “The Maidstone staff were
very apologetic but indicated the Pembury system seemed to be in chaos,” said self-employed electrician Derek Hanlon. “I was told it was urgent to
stop the problem setting and making the operation more complex. But Pembury could not arrange this and I’ve never received so many promised phone backs. “I doubt if many patients, es- pecially elderly people, could have been as determined and persistent to force a date.”
THE single-bed ward system throughout the new Pembury hos- pital suits many – but it is proving a danger for some because there is no support from fellow patients. Most ward doors include a win- dow for staff observation. One Maidstone woman with se-
vere stomach pains was admitted at night by her ambulance team – but their job does not include ward acclimatisation and she was not set up with the alarm buzzer. She rocked the bed violently to try to get attention until she found the alarm. A blind woman in distress said she faced a sim- ilar problem.
Maidstone Action for Services in Hospital (MASH), tells the story of the birth of his third great grandchild.He also reports on some com- plaints now being made by patients. He said: “The trust must en- sure that care, comfort and consideration improves – and quickly.”
Maternity lessons to be learned
Calm after the maternity storm:Mother and child, Laura Procter and Amelia
Amelia was safely delivered.
Pain.After the birth Laurawas left forhours without requested painkillers “due to a staff shortage”. Discharge. Laurawas told she would bedis- charged around 2pmand she arranged family transport.Dueto “staff shortages” they finally left at 6.15pm. Cash. An unexpected long stay can easily cause a personal cash shortage (food, drink etc, expensive parking) and there is no cash machine. It allworked out much as we campaigners expected – but with wonderful care and quality at the crucial time. That care and qual- ity has been transferred out of Maidstone Hospital. One dayMaidstone will get justice and itwill return. Our campaign goes on.
The reception desk at Pembury maternity wasunmanned–withpatients inlabourwait- ing for help. All births vary in their complexity – and
this unexpectedly proved the point. Amelia wasready tomakeher entry – but both mother and baby had a long tough time and were tired. The hospital team excelledwith a very car-
ing midwife and attentive consultants and doctors. After about 17 hours the decisionwas made for a Caesarean section. In minutes
MAIDSTONE Hospital’s new birthing centre is bursting at the seams... Well, not quite, but there’s
an unexpected bulge in the number of mums-to-be at the facility.
Consultant midwife Sarah Gregson said: “We planned to have up to 200 births at the Birth Centre during the first year of opening but it looks as though we may be doing more
Gillian Duffey, deputy divisional director, said, “We are glad that Mr Fowle’s grand- daughter chose tohave her baby atTunbridge Wells Hospital, that mother and baby are well and that she felt that the hospital team “excelled” in her care. “Thenewhospitalhas proved very popular
withnewmumsfromall overWest Kentwho tell us that they think the care and facilities aremarvellous. If this lady wishes to raise any of the concerns in the Downs Mail article with us we will be glad to look into them.”
birthing unit
than we originally anticipated. “Sixteen babies were born
here in October, but we had 14 births in the first two weeks of November and an- other 20 bookings for the rest of the month. “It looks as though the cen- tre may end up having over
Seventy journeys to feed ‘special’ baby THE travel problems of breast-feeding babies in the special care baby unit at Pembury have been highlighted by Laura Thomas, who had twins by Caesarean section at Pembury, just before the merger with Maidstone maternity. One of the baby girls weighed only 2lb 11oz and Laura had to
be transported to the hospital twice a day for 35 days, accom- panied by the other twin. “The care was fantastic,” she said, “but the journeys were tough.
“Fortunately, we were staying with my parents at Hunton then and that helped so much.”
Pros and cons of hospital’s single-bed wards There are alsomore patient falls in single rooms
– but the trust denied there had been an associ- ated death. Chief nurse Flo Panel Coates (pictured left) said
newworking practices are being introduced. “Pa- tients who previously sought assistance to reach the bathroom in our old hospital now try to use their en-suite facilities on their own. In reality, they still need assistance.” More special low-rise beds have been intro-
duced for patients at higher risk. Dedicated staff are assigned to provide one-to-one care to high- risk patients. The nurse in charge of each ward has enhanced responsibility for routinely check- ing that call bells remain in reach.
Bulge at
twice the level of demand we thought we might get, but well within our capacity.” The Birth Centre includes
two birthing rooms, four en- suite postnatal rooms, kitchen diner and garden room. CathyWarwick, general sec-
retary of the Royal College of Midwives, will be guest of ho- nour at the official opening of the centre on Friday, Decem- ber 16.
Maidstone A&E
services ‘safe’ THE board meeting of the hos- pital trust assured the Downs Mail there are no plans to run down Maidstone A&E. New fears arose when A&E
lost about 10% of patients as the new Pembury Hospital fully opened in September. The trust believes this will settle at about 4% (about six patients a day) now trauma surgery and inpatient children go to Pem- bury. It says ambulance crews in- creasingly take patients to Maidstone who should be treated there. “Pembury A&E is too busy for Maidstone’s work,” the trust says. The ambulance service has
since confirmed to the Downs Mail that in most cases pa- tients are being taken to the nearest A&E department un- less they need, for clinical rea- sons, to go to another centre of excellence.
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