Coombe or Holles St?

Brioscai

Can anyone recommend one or the other, in particular with hyperemesis or hypothyroidism? Thank you.

polydactyl

Well the Coombe were the first to start treating people with hyperemesis in he last few years with Cariban with he other hospitals gradually following suit. Both good though

January

Which one is closer to you?

angeldelight

Coombe has parking which is handy. I'd a great experience there but you'll get people with positives and negatives for both. I haven't heard of as much overcrowding in wards in the Coombe as i have in HS

Brioscai

January, they are both quite accessible. But I don't know anyone that has been to the Coombe. I have heard that they are much better for dealing with HG.

Brioscai

Polydactyl, I had heard that about the Coombe. I know now that as a result of them, GPs and HS are now prescribing Cariban. Would you recommend them? Even pm me, thanks.

Brioscai

Thanks Angeldelight, the parking is definitely handier. Do you know if the Coombe do early transfer home?

Cakerbaker

I think the areas for early transfer home are hospital specific so you may want to see what hospitals cover your area if it's something you're interested in. I was told I could only avail of that if I attended Holles St because of where I live. Now I had been intending on going there anyway so it didn't affect me but might be worth checking out if it is something you're considering.

olaola

Brioscai wrote: »

Thanks Angeldelight, the parking is definitely handier. Do you know if the Coombe do early transfer home?

They do, but as Cakerbaker said, you need to be in the catchment area for your hospital. I do know the Coombe has larger labour suites, and generally more room (it also has a birthing pool if you're able to use it)
I'm doing Domino there for the second time, no complaints.

Brioscai

Thanks CakerBaker. I'll check that out. It's not a deal breaker though if I did have to stay but worth considering.

January

I was in the Coombe in 2010 and had an amazing experience. Would have no problem recommending them. I was on a 4 bed public ward after birth. The delivery room was huge too. If you want to leave early that's totally up to you, once doc will sign you and baby off you can leave as quickly as you wish, the only drawback is that you won't have a midwife visit you at home for the few days afterwards if you're not in the catchment area for it.

Brioscai

Thank you OlaOla, what you've written sounds very positive.

Brioscai

Thank you January. That too sounds really positive! I think that I am out of the catchment, but I think that I could handle it.

mirrorwall14

I had a baby in the coombe last January 2015. Cannot recommend it enough. Really well looked after. Postnatal was a bit mental 5 of us on a 6 bed ward and the staff ratios aren't fantastic I felt but was out in 48hrs and I will definitely go back. My sister is there now and they are being very good for her too. We both had issues in pregnancy (High blood pressure, growth restrictions, low fluid and she has developed a heart condition). They made us feel very secure and safe. Both public

Digs

I'm on my second in holles street and cannot fault it this time or last, postnatal wards busy alright but the staff were brilliant. I felt so safe there and wouldn't consider going anywhere else when I found out I was pregnant on #2.

I attended/attend the thyroid clinic, monitored regularly and post natal they kept an eye on me and baby in the clinic until she was about 6 weeks.

There seems to be so little between HS and the Coombe that if you can't decide whichever is closest would be your best bet. You'll get people who'll love Holles Street and an equal amount who love the Coombe to be honest!

Brioscai

Mirrorwall14, it seems like you both had a very tough time through the pregnancies. I'm so glad that everything went well for you and that they are looking after your sister so well. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Brioscai

Digs, thank you so much. I have not heard of anyone being treated for thyroid there. I'm a bit worried as my last pregnancy, the care was very poor in HS in the early stages (on several visits). Their midwife service was amazing though. I'm afraid that if I end up with the regular clinics, it will be similar to my early pregnancy experiences. I need to hear positive experiences! It is great to hear recent good experiences.

I think that I may ring both on Monday and try to see what their services are like.

Digs

Brioscai wrote: »

Digs, thank you so much. I have not heard of anyone being treated for thyroid there. I'm a bit worried as my last pregnancy, the care was very poor in HS in the early stages (on several visits). Their midwife service was amazing though. I'm afraid that if I end up with the regular clinics, it will be similar to my early pregnancy experiences. I need to hear positive experiences! It is great to hear recent good experiences.

I think that I may ring both on Monday and try to see what their services are like.

Oh no problem. I had my daughter in 2013 and to be honest while I had no problems last time round I have noticed a change in how efficiently their clinics are run this time. My appointments are Tuesday mornings and there are barely any queues and everything runs like clockwork. My apt last tues was 8:30am and I was at my desk at 9am (bare in mind I work 5 mins away!!)

The midwives clinic might be an option for you. I know one of the midwives who works there and she said Hazel who runs the midwife clinic is fantastic, I actually met Hazel on my first visit and she was great, very personable. Going with the midwives is still an option if you've a thyroid problem.

Dr Foley ran the thyroid clinic on my first pregnancy but he's since retired, I'm not too sure who running it now actually.

Definitely ring and check it out, I can understand why you'd be apprehensive this time round if #1 was less than satisfactory!

PLL

Had to file a complaint due to negligence in the Coombe.

Even if I wasn't mistreated, I still cannot fathom how people rave about the place. Really and truly one of the worst experiences I've ever had.

dreamstar

PLL wrote:

Even if I wasn't mistreated, I still cannot fathom how people rave about the place. Really and truly one of the worst experiences I've ever had.

I also had a bad experience in the Coombe. Now I miscarried but just didn't feel very well looked after. I just wouldn't be able to go back there.
And while people say there is car parking. The carpark is BRUTAL! I ended up queuing for ages every time I had to go.
Holles St has LOADS of off street parking. And once you sign up for the parking app on your phone you can top up your parking charge from your phone.

But there will be people who've had good and bad experiences in both. I'd go for whichever is easiest to get to.

mirrorwall14

Carparking in the coombe is really dependent on you booking the earliest time you can for your booking appointments! I guess everyone has different experiences. I would also say that no matter where you go, stay on top of your chart. Push for discussion until you understand everything. If in doubt ask. I have family in healthcare and they all say, know what is happening. If that requires talking, questions or even shouting until someone listens-do that!


Edit: To say, I'm probably understating post natal. Its the part that I really hated. I felt unsupported and treated like a child. I'm hoping that I have a
"normal" birth if I go again and can push for a quicker release. Last time the baby was on 48hr hold

lazygal

Every hospital will have its horror stories and people who highly recommend it. I was in Holles street. It was fine, there's things I liked and disliked and I echo the advice to stay on top of your chart and ask questions or for second opinions if you're not happy. If I have another I'll go back to Holles street because the location suited me and I know the place. Post natal care can be hit and miss though, unless you're fully private. I found the wards manic.

st1979

4 years ago this week we had twins severely premature in the combe. I'm sure baby's would of been looked after just as well in holles street but the care mammy and daddy were given for the 6 weeks our boys were in intensive care was excellent. It was little things like the parking on campus and while our lads were in ICU the parking was free. They help us parents so much. Thankfully both survived and are perfectly healthy.
So if something bad happened how would you cope spending all day in holles street and have to run out every couple of hours to move the car and pay for more parking for maybe a month??

ChewChew

I've inky had one baby and I had her in the Coombe may last year and couldn't fault them. I was high risk, admitted a few times pre delivery and once post delivery and I only encountered one staff member who I found incredibly rude. My care and treatment was fantastic too, couldn't fault it. They wanted to treat me for my thyroid but I actually work with my endocrinologist so I opted to stay with him as it was convenient. We're also out of the catchment area for the early discharge but I had the baby on Monday afternoon and we were home Thursday afternoon so wasn't too bad! Like others have mentioned, the aftercare was not the best. While the staff were great, there just wasn't enough! I know loads that have gone to holles st and had great experiences!!

Keane2baMused

The coombe. Had two emergency c-sections there and the care was faultless. I also had hyperemisis and a number of admissions anti-natally. The midwives are also very helpful with breastfeeding and non-judgemental if you decide to bottle feed.

Semi-private first time and public care second. The public care was just as good and the room I was in may as well have been semi-private,only 2 other patients with me.

Got scanned on every visit by the consultant also. As someone else said if you make an early appointment parking is fine. It can be a bit of a nightmare to get in later on in the day but then later in the day in dublin city parking is a disaster also.

olaola

I think everyone is going to have good/bad stories about each hospital. Prob best to make an objective decision based on your requirements, and how well each hospital meets them?

Brioscai

Thank you all so, so much for your very helpful responses. I think hearing about other peoples experiences has helped so much. I think that I need to look at it all objectively, and weigh it all up as you say OlaOla. Thank you all every one of you for your experiences. I really appreciate that you took the time to help me.

RentDayBlues

I'm different, we had our first in mount carmel and our second almost there, it closed 2 weeks before she arrived. When it closed we had to decide on which hospital to transfer to, primarily between the Coombe and holles street.

I've had a number of friends who've had babies in holles street and no one spoke poorly of it but no one spoke highly of it either. I knew no one who had been to the Coombe

For me it came down to their labour management policies, I know no one can force you to do anything but each hospital has policies it follows and I choose the Coombe based on this. They were excellent, delivery room was huge, midwife was very supportive. Post natal care was hit and miss, had to stay in for 4 days as baby was in special care and on antibiotics. Staff in scbu were amazing.

After discharge the baby had to attend the clinic twice and that was fine too. Parking can be a pain but it's handy to have it there.

RentDayBlues

This might be interesting to you OP

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0215/768111-holles-street-hiqa/

mirrorwall14

10 extra babies on the neonatal unit?! 10?!! WTF? Thats waaaaaay too many over. Thats 27.8% too many babies on the ward. I really really hope they had 30% extra staff on the ward too or that is just incredible

January

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

10 extra babies on the neonatal unit?! 10?!! WTF? Thats waaaaaay too many over. Thats 27.8% too many babies on the ward. I really really hope they had 30% extra staff on the ward too or that is just incredible

You can bet they didn't. You can also bet if they had of turned any of those ten babies away and something had happened there'd have been uproar too, what were they supposed to do?

Keane2baMused

Transfer the most stable babies to another neonatal unit ideally. Unless they had the staff to cover the number of babies then what they did was unsafe.

Never mind them having a cot partially blocking a fire exit or poor hygiene standards, absolutely no excuse for this.

mirrorwall14

January wrote: »

You can bet they didn't. You can also bet if they had of turned any of those ten babies away and something had happened there'd have been uproar too, what were they supposed to do?

Obviously don't turn anyone away but you have to imagine there are things that can be done to alleviate it, additional staff would be one of the very basic things that should be part of standard procedure in an overcrowding of a neonatal unit

Sligo1

The thing is... There are no additional staff. They don't have any staff. Much like many other of the Dublin hospitals Holles St do not have staff. And they prob couldn't send most stable babies to another NICU. These babies aren't stable. That's why they're in a NICU.

I feel sorry for the staff (and the babies). At least Holles St can still say they have excellent clinical outcomes. And good outcomes exceed any other maternity hospital in Ireland and many internationally.

No excuse for poor hygiene tho! That annoys me...

Penny Dreadful

Sligo1 wrote: »

The thing is... There are no additional staff. They don't have any staff. Much like many other of the Dublin hospitals Holles St do not have staff. And they prob couldn't send most stable babies to another NICU. These babies aren't stable. That's why they're in a NICU.

I feel sorry for the staff (and the babies). At least Holles St can still say they have excellent clinical outcomes. And good outcomes exceed any other maternity hospital in Ireland and many internationally.

No excuse for poor hygiene tho! That annoys me...

And not only that the other NICUs don't exactly have lots of spare space or staff either.

The poor hygiene is rotten. I know hospitals will say its harder to thoroughly clean somewhere then there is no down time for use of a ward or area but given the fact that the hygiene can be improved so dramatically after a HIQA inspection tells us all that it might be more difficult to clean somewhere but its not impossible.

angeldelight

I remember being in the Coombe on a weekend for a trace and the consultant on call was brought up to scan me - she had to step away and take a call as part of the Coombes NICU was closed due to infection and she was scrambling as she had two women who needed to deliver early but there would be no space for their babies. She ended up arranging for the women to be brought to the Rotunda to deliver there rather than risk moving the preemies but only after a humdinger of a row on the phone with the person she was talking to in the Rotunda! So if imagine all the hospitals can be under similar stress at different times

Brioscai

Thank you all so much for your input. The HIQA report is indeed shocking. Were similar checks done on the Coombe/Rotunda? The sooner they move HS the better.

Nellywelly

I had my 1st baby & also a miscarraige in Holles Street & my 2nd baby and another miscarraige in the Coombe and I'd recommend the coombe. They were very supportive during labour on my 2nd as I was quite anxious about birth/delivery. It was a fantastic birth & they really listened to me. I had a missed miscarraige a few months ago and they were amazing! The care I recieved from the moment we found out to going through the D&C procedure was brilliant, they went above & beyond. They rang a couple of times after to see how I was coping....they just seemed to get it.
I had my 1st miscarriage in Holles Street in December 07 and a midwife asked me to stop crying (while I sat waiting to find out what the next step was)& to help her put up christmas decorations!!!! I kid you not!

LegacyUser

Hi there, hope it's ok that I hijack this thread. For my last delivery I wasn't in Ireland so I have no experience of the maternity system. I now find myself to be pregnant again, really delighted about it, but confused about where to attend. I had a difficult C-Section and will hopefully have a second one. I also had preeclampsia so may be considered high risk again. I'm five minutes from Holles Street but I'm just really concerned about hygiene and overcrowding. I really don't know what to do. The Coombe seems to have better feedback but it would mean going across the city and it doesn't have the level of positive clinical outcomes that NMH does. Any ideas? I'm also intending to go semi private. Can any of you recommend a good consultant please? Thank you.

irishgirl19

Id recommend Nadine Farrah in the coombe

Penny Dreadful

Babybean wrote: »

Hi there, hope it's ok that I hijack this thread. For my last delivery I wasn't in Ireland so I have no experience of the maternity system. I now find myself to be pregnant again, really delighted about it, but confused about where to attend. I had a difficult C-Section and will hopefully have a second one. I also had preeclampsia so may be considered high risk again. I'm five minutes from Holles Street but I'm just really concerned about hygiene and overcrowding. I really don't know what to do. The Coombe seems to have better feedback but it would mean going across the city and it doesn't have the level of positive clinical outcomes that NMH does. Any ideas? I'm also intending to go semi private. Can any of you recommend a good consultant please? Thank you.

Where on earth did you hear that particular fact? Interestingly I was told my a legal friend that NMH has more cases taken against it by parents on behalf of their children due to accidents casued at birth, etc where as the Coombe takes more cases against parents (women usually of course) that do not take the necessary steps for their babies.

I opted for the Coombe because my mother had us there (except for one she had in NMH and had a bad experience there) and my sister had her kids there and they were both happy. Its also handier for me work wise for appointments and there is parking either on site or with relative ease close by. I also think its under slightly less pressure than NMH because it isn't the NMH.
Many many women have their babies in the 3 maternity hospitals in Dublin every day and almost all have a positive happy outcome. I had my daughter in the Coombe and returned for this pregnancy too. The only change I made this time was to opt for fully private (for reasons previously stated) rather than semi private as I had the last time.
A recommendation of a consultant is usually the way I'd go.

Keane2baMused

Professor Deirdre Murphy in the Coombe.

I had my two babies there and first was semi-private and second public.

Public was with the prof and she is an outstanding doctor.

Would not waste your money on semi-private. You get the EXACT same care and attention. Only difference is longer queues for public.

Penny Dreadful

[QUOTE=Keane2baMused;99443937]Professor Deirdre Murphy in the Coombe.

I had my two babies there and first was semi-private and second public.

Public was with the prof and she is an outstanding doctor.

Would not waste your money on semi-private. You get the EXACT same care and attention. Only difference is longer queues for public.[/QUOTE]

Thats who I am attending and she is fabulous. I couldn't recommend her highly enough either.
When I had my miscarriage last summer she was there in the most professional and compassionate way possible. This time around I never even hesitated before deciding that she was the doctor for me and she is superb. I am attending her privately but I couldn't imagine her being any less good for any other patient.
I agree re: semi private. You get SFA more. Slightly shorter waiting times, a smaller ward post delivery but its still got other people in it, its still noisy and still super warm!

Keane2baMused

Absolutely agree!

So sorry to hear about your miscarriage. She is so understanding though. I had a very traumatic first delivery (emergency c-section under GA) and nobody bothered to explain anything after his birth.

The prof however on my first visit had read through all of my notes and was the first person to ever recognise the sh1t I went through!

Also I was very lucky as there was only 3 of us in my room! When I was semi-private there was 4

Penny Dreadful

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Absolutely agree!

So sorry to hear about your miscarriage. She is so understanding though. I had a very traumatic first delivery (emergency c-section under GA) and nobody bothered to explain anything after his birth.

The prof however on my first visit had read through all of my notes and was the first person to ever recognise the sh1t I went through!

Also I was very lucky as there was only 3 of us in my room! When I was semi-private there was 4

So much of it is the luck of the draw isn't it:) Also in the grand scheme of things the room you get doesn't really matter (although I really really hope to get one of my own this time around:o).
The miscarriage was just one of those horrible awful things that happens to a suprisingly large amount of women. While it was certainly not something that I'd ever want to have to deal with again in a medical sense it was managed so well and Prof Murphy was so kind and understanding about things all of the way through it that is made things easier.
Then when I turned up again pregnant a few months later she has taken such good care of me/us all of the way though it has made what could have been a worrying pregnancy much easier and more enjoyable.
Like you I had some dramas post delivery on my daughter and that is why I opted for private care this time and I have been very impressed with how thorough she has been in terms of accessing my old chart, reading up on what happened, discussing the events and discussing a care plan A and B for this time around too.
What has also impressed me a lot is how she has been in contact with my rheumatologist all of the way through this pregnancy. To be fair, he has been great too and has given her as much information as he can and gone above and beyond at certain times in accessing research papers, etc for her. Between them both I feel that both myself, my RA and the baby are being well minded through the whole pregnancy.
We hear so many negative things about the health service in Ireland and it is very nice to experience something very positive instead.

irishgirl19

Keane2baMused wrote:

Professor Deirdre Murphy in the Coombe.

My friend who is TTC sees her and speaks very highly of her

threescompany

I think you'll hear positive and negative everywhere - I can only comment on my own experience and it's difficult to give an unbiased view unless you've experienced both hospitals, first hand. I was a private patient on all 3 of my children in NMH. I could not fault the level of care, hygiene etc. I was very happy with everything.
I have had several friends / family members who had babies in NMH as semi private patients and they were quite happy too. The only complaint I heard was it was busy at certain times.
I believe there may be more cases taken against NMH as there are more babies born there every year so really it's all relative. Congrats on pregnancy & good luck on whatever you decide.