Mum-to-be endures two-hour trip to neonatal unit

9:28am Thursday 15th May 2008

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A pregnant woman and her unborn twins were driven around London for hours because they could not be cared for at St Helier Hospital.

Ashtrid Turnbull needed expert medical care twice - the first time when she was 26 weeks' pregnant and her labour threatened to start, and the second time at 31 weeks into the pregnancy.

“Saying you can choose where you are going to have your baby is ludicrous – there is no choice. It is complete madness."

Spencer Turnbill

The first time she was taken to Homerton Hospital in Hackney - two hours' drive from her Sutton home and the nearest place where an intensive care cot was available.

After a week her pregnancy stabilised and she was allowed to return home.

On the second occasion she was rushed 23 miles to Hillingdon where the babies were born on April 3, more than seven weeks early, and placed in intensive care.

After 10 days Hannah and Jessie were well enough to be transferred to the neonatal unit at Epsom.

Now Spencer and Ashtrid, 34, are demanding that officials from Epsom and St Helier Univeristy Hospitals NHS Trust think again before re-organising and reducing maternity facilities in the area.

Mr Turnbull, from Sydney Road, said: "Patient choice is a complete joke - there is no choice.

"My wife and I wanted our twins to be born at St Helier but twice we were shifted out to other hospitals.

"Saying you can choose where you are going to have your baby is ludicrous - there is no choice. It is complete madness.

"Which MP is going to put up their hands and say they are culpable if there are deaths because of the distance people have to travel?

"Maternity is like A&E, you need it close to home and you need enough beds to cope with the pressure."

A spokesman for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "On a small number of occasions each year, expectant mothers who present themselves at UK maternity units need to be transferred to other hospitals for more specialist care or due to the neonatal intensive care unit being full.

"In the majority of cases, this will be because there is an increased risk that there may be problems during the birth and the mother and/or baby need more specialist care than can be provided by the hospital they are at.

"When we cannot provide care to the patient we will contact the emergency bed service which will then find a local specialist maternity unit that can treat the mother and her baby.

"Every effort is made to return mother and baby to our unit as soon as both are fit to be transferred. In some cases, however, it may be necessary for the mother to be transferred to a hospital that is not in the immediate area."