The Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham has started selling stays in private side rooms on a maternity ward to new mums.
Women and their new babies can now ask to move from the main ward to a new “amenity room” for “peace, quiet and space of their own” – but will be charged £40 a night.
Hospital managers say the policy was introduced after ward staff on ward C29 suggested it as a solution for mums and their new babies struggling to get rest on the busy unit, after feedback from patients.
The NHS trust which runs the hospital also says the rooms will be made available on request – and only if they are already free and not needed by someone who staff decide needs the room for a medical reason.
Nottingham pregnancy coach Alexia Leachman said she was against the idea – but could understand the hospital’s reasoning.
She said: “I don’t think the rooms are something that should be paid for, but with the cuts that are being made to services it does make sense.
“Women having their privacy is important and it’s a shame that some are having to pay but they should be at home having a home birth.
“Some women go into hospital far too early and it costs money.”
The fees for the rooms are payable on discharge, the hospital says, and mums can request a room when they have their baby and a midwife will then advise if a room is available.
Alexia added: “People will pay it because you’d want to feel like you’re on your own, and I can imagine for some it wouldn’t feel like a lot of money at the time.
“I mean, I would probably pay it if I was in that situation.
“But home birth rates in the UK are really really low and I think that’s something that should change.”
She added: “It costs around £800 to health services for a home birth but around £1,200 for a birth in hospital, and that’s without a caesarean section, that costs around £2,500.
“£40 for a room for the night seems like a knee-jerk reaction when you think if the amount of home births increased from around three per cent to, say, ten per cent, [the NHS could save much more money].”
At least one person has already taken up the offer and been charged for a room, Nottingham University Hospitals Trust said.
A story about the change and how busy the hospital’s maternity wards can be appears in the latest edition of the trust’s newsletter.
It highlights an example of one recent day on ward C29 at the hospital, when five sets of twins were on the ward at the same time.
A spokesman for the trust said: “The rooms were available before but could not be requested; they would be provided to women who staff felt were most in need.
“It is still the case that if staff feels a woman’s needs are best served by using this area then they would be able to use it without charge.
“The trust had initially consulted women and partners on both sites as we have previously been asked to provide amenity rooms.
“The money raised would go back into the unit to improve the environment and the facilities for women and partners.
“If there was a demand, we would make this available on other wards.”
