Pregnancy and antenatal care

Healthwatch Richmond gathered the views and experiences of local women who had received care during pregnancy (antenatal care). This work corresponded with plans, both local and national, to improve the provision of maternity services. Healthwatch representatives carried out semi-structured, face-to-face discussions with individual women to gather their feedback. Feedback was also collected via an online survey that was mainly promoted through the Healthwatch Richmond website. The project and the choice of questions used were discussed with local hospitals and partners. The online survey was accessible from 20th March 2018 to 23rd April 2018. The one-to-one discussions took place between 14th March 2018 and 24th April 2018. The report highlights where services are working well and makes recommendations to the commissioners and providers of antenatal care at Kingston Hospital, West Middlesex Hospital and any other local hospitals. It will be shared with commissioners and providers of maternity care services in order to help make improvements.

One hundred and three local women responded either through the online survey or by taking part in one-to-one discussions (47 and 54 respectively) between March and April 2018. Respondents came from across the geographical spread of the borough. For about half of respondents this was their first pregnancy. The due date of women spanned from August 2015 to May 2018. The majority of women had very recent experience of pregnancy.

The majority of people rated the overall care that they received as very good (44%) and good (42%). Narrative responses enabled some analysis of care within our main hospitals. The majority of women were content with their care and are receiving good antenatal care at all local Hospitals (96% rated their care as “Very Good” or “Good”). Many women highlighted the positive experiences of care that they had experienced in terms of trouble free referral pathways, choice of provider, receiving good care from compassionate staff and getting the right information at the right time. There were however suggestions for improvements could or in some cases should be made. There is however need for improvement findings in relation to care at West Middlesex Hospital with both relatively lower ratings of care at the hospital (78% vs average of 96% positive ratings) combined with accounts of staff not being sufficiently caring. West Middlesex Hospital have acknowledged these findings and have set out a detailed action plan committing them to meaningful improvements to care.