Coombe or Holles St?

Keane2baMused

Transfer the most stable babies to another neonatal unit ideally. Unless they had the staff to cover the number of babies then what they did was unsafe.

Never mind them having a cot partially blocking a fire exit or poor hygiene standards, absolutely no excuse for this.

mirrorwall14

January wrote: »

You can bet they didn't. You can also bet if they had of turned any of those ten babies away and something had happened there'd have been uproar too, what were they supposed to do?

Obviously don't turn anyone away but you have to imagine there are things that can be done to alleviate it, additional staff would be one of the very basic things that should be part of standard procedure in an overcrowding of a neonatal unit

Sligo1

The thing is... There are no additional staff. They don't have any staff. Much like many other of the Dublin hospitals Holles St do not have staff. And they prob couldn't send most stable babies to another NICU. These babies aren't stable. That's why they're in a NICU.

I feel sorry for the staff (and the babies). At least Holles St can still say they have excellent clinical outcomes. And good outcomes exceed any other maternity hospital in Ireland and many internationally.

No excuse for poor hygiene tho! That annoys me...

Penny Dreadful

Sligo1 wrote: »

The thing is... There are no additional staff. They don't have any staff. Much like many other of the Dublin hospitals Holles St do not have staff. And they prob couldn't send most stable babies to another NICU. These babies aren't stable. That's why they're in a NICU.

I feel sorry for the staff (and the babies). At least Holles St can still say they have excellent clinical outcomes. And good outcomes exceed any other maternity hospital in Ireland and many internationally.

No excuse for poor hygiene tho! That annoys me...

And not only that the other NICUs don't exactly have lots of spare space or staff either.

The poor hygiene is rotten. I know hospitals will say its harder to thoroughly clean somewhere then there is no down time for use of a ward or area but given the fact that the hygiene can be improved so dramatically after a HIQA inspection tells us all that it might be more difficult to clean somewhere but its not impossible.

angeldelight

I remember being in the Coombe on a weekend for a trace and the consultant on call was brought up to scan me - she had to step away and take a call as part of the Coombes NICU was closed due to infection and she was scrambling as she had two women who needed to deliver early but there would be no space for their babies. She ended up arranging for the women to be brought to the Rotunda to deliver there rather than risk moving the preemies but only after a humdinger of a row on the phone with the person she was talking to in the Rotunda! So if imagine all the hospitals can be under similar stress at different times

Brioscai

Thank you all so much for your input. The HIQA report is indeed shocking. Were similar checks done on the Coombe/Rotunda? The sooner they move HS the better.

Nellywelly

I had my 1st baby & also a miscarraige in Holles Street & my 2nd baby and another miscarraige in the Coombe and I'd recommend the coombe. They were very supportive during labour on my 2nd as I was quite anxious about birth/delivery. It was a fantastic birth & they really listened to me. I had a missed miscarraige a few months ago and they were amazing! The care I recieved from the moment we found out to going through the D&C procedure was brilliant, they went above & beyond. They rang a couple of times after to see how I was coping....they just seemed to get it.
I had my 1st miscarriage in Holles Street in December 07 and a midwife asked me to stop crying (while I sat waiting to find out what the next step was)& to help her put up christmas decorations!!!! I kid you not!

LegacyUser

Hi there, hope it's ok that I hijack this thread. For my last delivery I wasn't in Ireland so I have no experience of the maternity system. I now find myself to be pregnant again, really delighted about it, but confused about where to attend. I had a difficult C-Section and will hopefully have a second one. I also had preeclampsia so may be considered high risk again. I'm five minutes from Holles Street but I'm just really concerned about hygiene and overcrowding. I really don't know what to do. The Coombe seems to have better feedback but it would mean going across the city and it doesn't have the level of positive clinical outcomes that NMH does. Any ideas? I'm also intending to go semi private. Can any of you recommend a good consultant please? Thank you.

irishgirl19

Id recommend Nadine Farrah in the coombe

Penny Dreadful

Babybean wrote: »

Hi there, hope it's ok that I hijack this thread. For my last delivery I wasn't in Ireland so I have no experience of the maternity system. I now find myself to be pregnant again, really delighted about it, but confused about where to attend. I had a difficult C-Section and will hopefully have a second one. I also had preeclampsia so may be considered high risk again. I'm five minutes from Holles Street but I'm just really concerned about hygiene and overcrowding. I really don't know what to do. The Coombe seems to have better feedback but it would mean going across the city and it doesn't have the level of positive clinical outcomes that NMH does. Any ideas? I'm also intending to go semi private. Can any of you recommend a good consultant please? Thank you.

Where on earth did you hear that particular fact? Interestingly I was told my a legal friend that NMH has more cases taken against it by parents on behalf of their children due to accidents casued at birth, etc where as the Coombe takes more cases against parents (women usually of course) that do not take the necessary steps for their babies.

I opted for the Coombe because my mother had us there (except for one she had in NMH and had a bad experience there) and my sister had her kids there and they were both happy. Its also handier for me work wise for appointments and there is parking either on site or with relative ease close by. I also think its under slightly less pressure than NMH because it isn't the NMH.
Many many women have their babies in the 3 maternity hospitals in Dublin every day and almost all have a positive happy outcome. I had my daughter in the Coombe and returned for this pregnancy too. The only change I made this time was to opt for fully private (for reasons previously stated) rather than semi private as I had the last time.
A recommendation of a consultant is usually the way I'd go.

Keane2baMused

Professor Deirdre Murphy in the Coombe.

I had my two babies there and first was semi-private and second public.

Public was with the prof and she is an outstanding doctor.

Would not waste your money on semi-private. You get the EXACT same care and attention. Only difference is longer queues for public.

Penny Dreadful

[QUOTE=Keane2baMused;99443937]Professor Deirdre Murphy in the Coombe.

I had my two babies there and first was semi-private and second public.

Public was with the prof and she is an outstanding doctor.

Would not waste your money on semi-private. You get the EXACT same care and attention. Only difference is longer queues for public.[/QUOTE]

Thats who I am attending and she is fabulous. I couldn't recommend her highly enough either.
When I had my miscarriage last summer she was there in the most professional and compassionate way possible. This time around I never even hesitated before deciding that she was the doctor for me and she is superb. I am attending her privately but I couldn't imagine her being any less good for any other patient.
I agree re: semi private. You get SFA more. Slightly shorter waiting times, a smaller ward post delivery but its still got other people in it, its still noisy and still super warm!

Keane2baMused

Absolutely agree!

So sorry to hear about your miscarriage. She is so understanding though. I had a very traumatic first delivery (emergency c-section under GA) and nobody bothered to explain anything after his birth.

The prof however on my first visit had read through all of my notes and was the first person to ever recognise the sh1t I went through!

Also I was very lucky as there was only 3 of us in my room! When I was semi-private there was 4

Penny Dreadful

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Absolutely agree!

So sorry to hear about your miscarriage. She is so understanding though. I had a very traumatic first delivery (emergency c-section under GA) and nobody bothered to explain anything after his birth.

The prof however on my first visit had read through all of my notes and was the first person to ever recognise the sh1t I went through!

Also I was very lucky as there was only 3 of us in my room! When I was semi-private there was 4

So much of it is the luck of the draw isn't it:) Also in the grand scheme of things the room you get doesn't really matter (although I really really hope to get one of my own this time around:o).
The miscarriage was just one of those horrible awful things that happens to a suprisingly large amount of women. While it was certainly not something that I'd ever want to have to deal with again in a medical sense it was managed so well and Prof Murphy was so kind and understanding about things all of the way through it that is made things easier.
Then when I turned up again pregnant a few months later she has taken such good care of me/us all of the way though it has made what could have been a worrying pregnancy much easier and more enjoyable.
Like you I had some dramas post delivery on my daughter and that is why I opted for private care this time and I have been very impressed with how thorough she has been in terms of accessing my old chart, reading up on what happened, discussing the events and discussing a care plan A and B for this time around too.
What has also impressed me a lot is how she has been in contact with my rheumatologist all of the way through this pregnancy. To be fair, he has been great too and has given her as much information as he can and gone above and beyond at certain times in accessing research papers, etc for her. Between them both I feel that both myself, my RA and the baby are being well minded through the whole pregnancy.
We hear so many negative things about the health service in Ireland and it is very nice to experience something very positive instead.

irishgirl19

Keane2baMused wrote:

Professor Deirdre Murphy in the Coombe.

My friend who is TTC sees her and speaks very highly of her

threescompany

I think you'll hear positive and negative everywhere - I can only comment on my own experience and it's difficult to give an unbiased view unless you've experienced both hospitals, first hand. I was a private patient on all 3 of my children in NMH. I could not fault the level of care, hygiene etc. I was very happy with everything.
I have had several friends / family members who had babies in NMH as semi private patients and they were quite happy too. The only complaint I heard was it was busy at certain times.
I believe there may be more cases taken against NMH as there are more babies born there every year so really it's all relative. Congrats on pregnancy & good luck on whatever you decide.