Trust Board Febuary 2010 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

SWBTB (2/10) 035 (a)
• A number of people raised concerns about the lack of public transport routes/links
between parts of Sandwell and City Hospital.
3.1.2 Parking
Parking was raised as an issue in focus groups, public meetings, questionnaire comments,
consultation events and through staff consultation. The key issues related to parking were
mainly connected with the capacity of the City Hospital site to cope with the additional staff
and visitor parking requirements.
3.1.3 Visiting
Frequently, in connection with distance and travelling times, people raised the issue of visiting
times and access for visitors. Again this was raised in focus groups and in comments on
questionnaires. It wasn’t raised as an issue at public meetings, at other consultation events or
by staff through formal consultation. However an informal consultation opportunity in
November with a small group of staff did raise the issue of access for visitors.
The key issues relating to visiting were:
• Access to City Hospital. Women particularly talked about the difficulties likely to be
experienced by visitors travelling to City Hospital both in terms of increased travelling
time and increased or additional travel costs. Sandwell women were worried that City
Hospital may be too far for their visitors to travel, and that this would reduce the
number of visitors they received. Women who had already experienced complications
during birth talked about how important it was for them to have their families visiting
them. Women were also concerned about the logistics for partners and relatives
particularly where they were trying to arrange childcare around visiting times. Women
felt that other female relatives would find it more difficult to find childcare to come and
visit them, given the increased travel time. “…if women run into complications the
support of their families is very important, and this will again prove hard if women give
birth at City instead of Sandwell, because of the distance and other children at home and
trying to fit in school runs etc as well as travelling on bus to City Hospital a 45 min bus
ride away ….” Some women were concerned that people who didn’t drive would find it
too difficult to visit them at City Hospital.
• Visiting times. People were concerned about visiting hours at City Hospital. Some
women at focus groups in the HOB area felt that visiting times at City Hospital were
shorter and less flexible than at Birmingham Women’s Hospital or Heartlands. Some
women at focus groups in Sandwell felt that visiting times at City Hospital were shorter
and less flexible than those at other hospitals.
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