5:45pm Thursday 15th May 2008
By Oliver Evans
A MUM who had to wait eight hours to be transferred out of Wycombe Hospital to give birth has backed our call for Gordon Brown to review NHS cuts.
Jill Hallas, 31, said women were being treated like "second class citizens" by the removal of doctor-led births from Wycombe Hospital.
The mum-of-five feared for her unborn daughter's life during a 40 minute "drive of hell" to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury.
Women face having to travel direct to the hospital to give birth by next year - five years after changes were agreed.
Some low-risk births will be overseen by midwives at Wycombe - but will be transferred to Stoke Mandeville if they run into problems.
Her call comes as more than 370 readers have responded to our call for Mr Brown to order a review into changes at the hospital.
Health officials agreed in 2004 to remove serious A&E trauma cases - the department has since been renamed - and doctor-led births.
Mrs Hallas, who until now had had all of her children at Wycombe, said: "The most important people are babies and pregnant mums and they are treating us like second class citizens. That is not what we pay our taxes for."
Authorities' claims that the changes would provide better care by having more doctors on one site were "rubbish" she said.
"I have lived here for 31 years and the standard of care has been excellent.
"In your local hospital you should have basic care and, to me, that includes having a baby."
In a direct appeal to Gordon Brown she said: "Please save our hospital."
Mrs Hallas - who has a history of placental abruption - was rushed to Stoke Mandeville on March 11 after suffering bleeding.
But Wycombe's special care baby unit was full and she said: "Eight hours after an ambulance transfer was requested the paramedics arrived."
The ride in a "bone shaker" ambulance was not much better, she said. "It was 40 minutes of hell."
The rattling ambulance meant the midwife could not hear the baby's heartbeat, she said: "If anything had happened they wouldn't have known about it."
"If I had haemorrhaged, my little girl would have died. It was very distressing."
The housewife, who has another daughter, Isabelle, with husband Simon, 33, gave birth to Evie by caesarean section the next day.
Although this meant Mrs Hallas, of Green Close, High Wycombe could stay in hospital she said some mums face having to return home miles away.
She said: "A lot of mums I spoke to in Wycombe couldn't drive. What are they going to do?"
Establishing breast-feeding would be "impossible" she said.
"It is going to break families up. If mums get post-natal depression it is going to cost the NHS more. I don't think they realise the ramifications of it."
Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman Jon Fisher said parents at Stoke Mandeville would get a bed to be with their child should it need special care.
A bigger maternity unit at the hospital would reduce the number of transfers to other hospitals, he said.
He added: "Partners, relatives and visitors may wish to use our free shuttle service between the hospitals should this be of use. The service runs frequently throughout the day, from early morning to late in the evening."
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