Woman shares King’s Lynn hospital miscarriage experience

A woman says she has lost “complete faith” and will never go back to a hospital that left her feeling “dismissed” after she had a miscarriage.

Emma Simmonds, 41, went to the early pregnancy unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, in 2023 after bleeding at almost 11 weeks pregnant.

She was told to return the next day and found out she had a miscarriage.

Chris Bown, interim managing director at the QEH, said: “Our patients deserve the highest standards of care, and we apologise in any circumstance where we do not meet these standards.”

In new league tables published by the government, the QEH was rated England’s worst-performing acute hospital.

She first visited the hospital after experiencing fertility struggles and sought support from the gynaecology department in 2018.

While under its care, she underwent investigations for possible endometriosis, but said she was “kicked off” a list for not attending a physiotherapy appointment that she claimed she was never notified of.

Following an urgent referral from her GP, she attended another appointment which she described as “pretty horrendous” and complained through the hospitals’ Patient Advice and Liaison Service (Pals).

She discovered the missed appointment was meant for someone else with the same name.

“I lost complete faith in them. Not only had the Pals and the two consultants who were leading the investigation not noticed there had been this data breach, nor had the legal team… there was no apology for it,” she said.

• If you have been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

In 2023, she sought support from the QEH early pregnancy unit after bleeding at five weeks.

At almost 11 weeks, she experienced another bleed and went back to the hospital, but felt staff were “dismissive”.

She was told to wait and come in the next day, but then learned her baby had died.

“Nobody should ever, ever have to feel like that,” she said.

“I don’t want to ever, ever, go back to that hospital because even after going through the complaints department and everything, nothing came of it.

“My GP was disgusted at what happened.”

Following this, she was referred to the recurrent miscarriage clinic at The Rosie Hospital in Cambridge where it took 12 weeks to diagnose her with endometriosis and adenomyosis.

Endometriosis is a condition where cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body, while adenomyosis is where the lining of the womb grows into the muscle in the wall of the womb.

• Details of organisations offering support with miscarriage are available in the UK at BBC Action Line.

Ms Simmonds said: “There is a culture not to complain… but actually I feel like we need to because the way lots of people are being treated is not OK.

“The excuses of funding and lack of staff and the fact the hospital is being held up by props… is not the patients’ fault.”

In response, Mr Bown said: “All concerns raised are taken seriously and we would encourage patients and their loved ones to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service if they have any concerns at all.”