UK HEALTH SYSTEM: Babies born in hospital corridors: Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to...

The babies born in hospital corridors: Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts, offices and hospital toilets

Thousands of women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds.

The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000.

Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labour being turned away from hospitals because they are full.

Latest figures show that over the past two years there were at least:

• 63 births in ambulances and 608 in transit to hospitals;
  
• 117 births in A&E departments, four in minor injury units and two in medical assessment areas;
  
• 115 births on other hospital wards and 36 in other unspecified areas including corridors;
  
• 399 in parts of maternity units other than labour beds, including postnatal and antenatal wards and reception areas.
  

Additionally, overstretched maternity units shut their doors to any more women in labour on 553 occasions last year.

Babies were born in offices, lifts, toilets and a caravan, according to the Freedom of Information data for 2007 and 2008 from 117 out of 147 trusts which provide maternity services.

One woman gave birth in a lift while being transferred to a labour ward from A&E while another gave birth in a corridor, said East Cheshire NHS Trust.

Others said women had to give birth on the wards - rather than in their own maternity room - because the delivery suites were full.

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley, who obtained the figures, said Labour had cut maternity beds by 2,340, or 22 per cent, since 1997. At the same time birth rates have been rising sharply - up 20 per cent in some areas.

Read more here

Wow, great free health care system!
Imagine giving birth in a stairwell... boggles the mind



[edit on 26-8-2009 by warrenb]

sweep it under the rug, there are plenty more reasons to hate the yanks than to look at this. nothing here to see. Lily Allen, David Haye, a Blur reunion, hate the yanks

... or just deliver the baby at home, like we do in Holland.

We don't see giving birth as a medical emergency but as a natural condition wich does not require medical attention (in most of the cases). Midwives come to your house when the water breaks and if (s)he decides that there is a medical emergency you will be taken to hospital via ambulance immediately.

In most of the cases though, everything will just turn out fine and the baby will be born in a natural way and in it's own loving home.

This takes a lot of pressure off of the maternity wards, the infants and the parents too.

I've been through this experience myself and must say it's absolutely wonderful!

edit to add: We also have government controlled healthcare...

[edit on 26-8-2009 by BazzeMan]

"63 births in ambulances and 608 in transit to hospitals;
117 births in A&E departments, four in minor injury units and two in medical assessment areas;
115 births on other hospital wards and 36 in other unspecified areas including corridors;
399 in parts of maternity units other than labour beds, including postnatal and antenatal wards and reception areas."

Is that all..? Man, that's nothing compared to the United States. Regardless, even with the statistics that you cite here, the UK still rates higher than the United States in Infant Mortality.

for example: in 2007, there were 5 infant deaths for every 1000 Births In the UK.

There were 6.4 infant deaths for every 1000 births in the US.

Sounds like the UK knows better than the US does about taking care of their infant births, even with the statistics that you quote.

Edited to add: The life expectancy for those infants is also longer in the UK. So, More infants survive their births in the UK than do they in the US, and they live longer too.

[edit on 26-8-2009 by uaocteaou]

You know? There was a time, not so long ago, where babies were born AT HOME! Without any doctors or nurses to observe/help.. My step mother's parturient (dont know if it is right word, but i think you get the idea) was her grand-mother..

Give birth is not a disease/condition.. its a wonderfull normal thing...

[edit on 26/8/09 by neformore]

reply to post by BazzeMan


That is the way my Grandparents where born over in the Netherlands!

If your not Dutch, your not much...............

Reading the OP and the news article had me ROTFLMAO, have you never heard of babies deciding to arrive when nobody is expecting them too?

Your using this as an excuse to knock down your Presidents attempt to give everyone the rights they are entitled too? pathetic.

I myself was delivered by Nuns, even though my mother was Pagan, why? because I wanted out, ok that was more than 40 years ago, but I have several kids in my extended family who didnt quite make it to the Hospital before joining the big World, nothing to do with the NHS being bad, it has to do with Nature.

And for those calling the UK Socialists and linking that with Nazi's let me tell you, while your country was looking waiting to see how the war was going to turn, the people of this country were being bombed day in and day out, every night for a long time my parents told me they would hear the sound of sirens then the wailing of German (nazi) BOMBERS THEN THE EXPLOSIONS STARTED. no discrimination between Military or Civilian, so please don't be using GREAT BRITAIN as an excuse for your own fears, we have been there and we have been through it.

Some wouldn't know Nazi OR FASCISM IF IT SMACKED YOU ON THE HEAD.

Stop making excuses and tell the truth, if everyone has the right to medical care, then employers lose a little bit of control over employees who rely on their jobs for insurance, it's called freedom, the right to get treated no matter what.

Since 1848 in this country the fight has been fought to get where we are now, a replacement for the workhouses, the poor houses, the end of poverty, and the pauper, what those making excuses to stop these advancements to give everyone medical care are really doing, is trying to keep control of your own little power domains, you don't really care about Americans, you care about materialistic elements in your life.

What is so wrong with giving poor people free medical care, after all if this does become law, you wont be forced to pay for insurance, just like in this country, if you want private medicine then you can have it, but you wont be asked for a credit report before you get treated, you will get treated simple as that, we have private medical insurance here in this country, and anyone can get it, but most of us feel we don't need it because we have one of the best medical systems on the planet.

What is in the OP is nothing but babies in a hurry, I bet if I did a search about babies born in the USA, the list would be a lot worse than the one at the top, after all you even have to pay for the Ambulance also.

We don't that is unthinkable, it's a right it's free, and it's paid for through a fair system paid by all.

Yeah a rant, but I am sick and tired of GB being used as an example, a false one at that.

Jeez, enough with the attacks on the NHS! The Daily Mail is almost incapable of writing positive news pieces. It continues to sell by encouraging people to unite in criticism of the NHS, the EU, asylum seekers and immigration etc. It also loves attacking the BBC...coincidentally, non partisan and owned by a competitor of the BBC! It's a guttersnipe of a news source.

The NHS is far from perfect, however, its positives far, far outweigh it's faults. The major fault is the same fault that is undermining health, police, education and welfare across the UK. It's about league tables, audits, new protocols, bloated management. It's the same old **** of overpaid leaders adding more and more burdens on underpaid staff.

More personally, in my own experience of friends, family and colleagues using the NHS, it's all positive. If I want a doctor's appointment, I phone and get seen that day or the next. A&E can be busy with total idiots at night (drunks and fighters), but on the whole they do a great job. A couple of friends are nurses and work hard. It's been open season on the NHS for a long time. What pisses me off even more is that the same people using their position to harass state education and health care are the rich elite that go private.

I can honestly say with conviction that if some of them f***** off and died, the world would be better off. Pompous, bureaucratic assholes that really are just parasites. rant/

reply to post by j2000


Never heard of that phrase but I like it!

Politically it's still a crappy country though, the Netherlands. Ugh.