Trust Board Febuary 2010 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

SWBTB (2/10) 035 (a)
above hospitals have a high infant mortality rate, and I personally would feel safer
delivering my baby in Sandwell as I would feel that I am receiving the very best care ….”
• People would like to see improvements made to the existing Sandwell facilities as one
person commented on their questionnaire “…Timing is really important, being able to
use the local transport or drive there yourself or be taken to hospital. Being able to walk
to the hospital is needed too. I feel really upset because I was told that Sandwell hospital
staying opened was not an option today. ….. We understand it needs improvement but is
it not better to work with a unit that is up and running rather than starting from
scratch.”
3.5 Where would you go to give birth if you were not able to have your baby in Sandwell?
The questionnaire asked Sandwell residents to tick where they would prefer to have their baby
if maternity services were transferred to City Hospital. The data was filtered to ensure that only
those respondents with Sandwell postcodes were included in the analysis.
Of the 404 Sandwell respondents 1 to this question:
• 119 (29%) would prefer to go to City Hospital
• 78 (19%) would prefer to go to Russells Hall Hospital.
• 67 (17%) would prefer to go to Walsall Manor Hospital
• 48 (12%) would prefer to go to Birmingham Women’s Hospital
• 44 ((11%) gave no answer to this question
• 43 (11%) would prefer to have a home birth.
• 5 (1%) would prefer to go to New Cross Hospital.
Pie charts showing an analysis of each of the options against Sandwell Postcode areas and
ethnicity can be found at appendix 4.
People who attended focus groups were asked to answer an additional question intended to
identify what (if anything) influenced their answer to the question above. 94 people answered
this question and their views are presented in table 5. Over half of respondents identified that
their choice of hospital was influenced by proximity to where they lived.
1 Percentages have been rounded up or down for ease of reading
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