I do get what you mean. But (from experience) it is not so much that the professionals transfer willy nilly just because they can, though this does happen. It is things like: if you are just a short walk from an epidural, psychologically you are less geared up to coping without one as you always have that get out clause. If you have to physically go somewhere for one then you only do it if you REALLY have to. Similarly I've done home/birth centre births where women have pushed a baby out absolutely against all odds because they'd have ended up with a ventouse in hospital (simply because they'd decided they'd had enough of this pushing for ages lark). Even women have admitted this to me, that if there had been the option to bail out then and there, they would have taken it. Psychologically, being right in the middle of a consultant led unit (or next to it) means you feel in a slight way that you ARE there. What I would suggest would be that for non-urgent transfers, including some in to hospital from the community (which I'm always terribly apologetic for even though I know I don't have to be) there is a 'lower tier' ambulance service that GPs etc could then use, that we could be triaged to through 999. That would mean that only the real emergencies would be transferred in by emergency ambulance and 'primip at 4cm wanting epidural' would not be taking away from someone needing cardiac care etc.