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Camden New Journal - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 2 August 2007

Whittington midwives get fewest complaints

MIDWIVES at Whittington Hospital receive seven times fewer complaints a year than their counterparts at UCLH and the Royal Free, figures released to the New Journal reveal.
Statistics published under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) show that since 2004 the Whittington, in Archway, has received only 13 complaints, while University College London Hospital, Euston, had 93 and the Royal Free in Hampstead had 112.
Across the board, only one midwife was reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council – a Royal Free employee. She was not removed from the register.
Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said: “Unless we know about the nature of the complaints it’s difficult to say whether or not the numbers are large.
“Mothers will complain the wards are dirty or the water isn’t running, for example. In our hospital at St George’s, the complaints are usually that the midwife didn’t attend or discharged the patient too early.”
Further figures show that over the past six years UCLH had 122 complaints – about 20 a year – while the Royal Free had 141, just over 23 annually. The Whittington was unable to expand on its figures.
According to the Whittington’s FoI officer: “We installed a new computer system to deal with complaints in 2004 so we can only provide information back to that time.”
A UCLH FoI officer said: “We encourage and actively seek feedback and also have a debrief midwife to support mothers wishing to complain.”
The figures show little difference between UCLH’s £400 million PFI hospital and Hampstead’s Royal Free, which came in for criticism earlier this year following an inquest into the death of West Hampstead baby, Riley Croft.
The inquest found baby Riley, the son of BBC journalists Iain Croft and Heather Paterson, died of asphyxia in March 2005 after midwives failed to notice his heart rate had dropped.

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