Transport
Your usual appointments with your midwife or consultant will be at your local maternity unit or where you have chosen to give birth. However, if you are found to need additional tests or scans for your medical condition your local team may ask you to travel to a different maternity unit at a different hospital. This will usually be because they have clinical specialists who can offer you support and advice or because you need specialist tests or scans doing in that different unit.
Generally you will be asked to make your own way to the specialist unit for your appointment and where possible things will all be done on the same day to avoid you having to travel frequently. Many hospitals can provide specific parking near to maternity units and may also be able to provide a pass so you don’t need to pay in certain circumstances; please contact the hospital directly to access this.
Please find below links to useful information about each of the Hospitals where the Maternal Medicine Centre's are based. The links include maps of the Hospitals, parking and facilities etc.
If you think that you will have difficulty in making your way to the specialist unit because of difficulties with transport or the costs involved in attending there are a number of different ways you can get support. The information below describes some of your options, or speak to your midwife or the Maternal Medicine Team for more advice.
This link describes the NHS provision for non-emergency transport and also helps you search for your local hospital information about transport or parking: How to organise transport to and from hospital - NHS (www.nhs.uk). It also describes how you can claim for hospital transport and parking costs if you are in receipt of certain benefits or on a low income.
There are also a number of charitable organisations that provide transport to and from hospitals; your local Health watch will be able to direct you to these – find your local Health watch at: Find your local Healthwatch | Healthwatch or you can do a local internet search for these. These charities include the Royal Voluntary Service (Hospital Care | Royal Voluntary Service) or the Red Cross Get help and support at home | British Red Cross