To be furious with my GP for forgetting to refer me for Ante-natal care?

[pinkypanther]

I am 11+2 with my third pregnancy. My first pregnancy ended with a missed miscarriage at 10 weeks, my second in a miscarriage at 5 weeks.

A few weeks ago I asked my GP to refer me to a local hospital for ante-natal care. She agreed to do this immediately but said she would need to look up how to do it as she normally referred people to a different hospital.

I waited to get my booking appointment through...and waited...and waited, blaming the postal strike. Finally today I called the hospital which confirmed it had no record of me being referred!

Given my history and my general level of anxiety about the wellbeing of this pregnancy I am .

AIBU to ring the GP practice and make a complaint?

[littleducks]

I think you should ring up the practice and calmly explain the prob.

You may have been refered, it may be the hosp has lost paperwork, lost in post whatever, you should check that first.

The important thing to do now is to make sure you get your 12 week scan, so make sure that is arranged

[pinkypanther]

thanks littleducks

I am sure calmly explaining the problem would be much better. The practice isn't open till 2pm so I've got an hour to take some deep breaths!

[littleducks]

I understand the frustration and anxiety though!

IME its hospitals that loose the paperwork most so give th gp the benefit of the doubt for now, if they havent referred you they will feel awful telling you that

Good luck with the pg!

[hereidrawtheline]

this happened to me when I was pregnant with DS. I ended up getting my booking in appointment at 10 weeks, scan at 13 weeks by which point I was already hospitalised on a drip for severe hyperemesis.

[littleducks]

and while being intensely irritating a '12 week' scan being not bang on the right week isnt really a problem, they have to be rescheduled due to staffing issues/women being away etc, and the scan procedures can still be done, so dont panic over that

what did gp say?

[Stigaloid]

Ahh inept GP's offices. My GP's office put the wrong address down on my referral and the midwife went knocking on the door of a 60 year old man trying to find me. Thankfully i took matters into my own hand as i hadn't heard from them and booked myself for a private NT scan. I also knew i have spina bifida and had arranged to be on higher doses of folic acid. I eventually got booked in at 16 weeks - useless!

I would be annoyed but definitely ask calmly - the GP may have filled out the referral but the office staff somewhere got it wrong.

Congrats on your pregnancy

[pinkypanther]

Thanks all. The reason I was concerned (aside from just desperately wanting to know if the baby is ok) was that I know there is quite a narrow window for the nuchal fold test, and I was risking missing that...

I phoned the practice and was very calm and polite - littleducks you were right, they said they had posted the letter on 31 July and they claimed that the hospital loses paperwork "all the time".

Not sure if that is reassuring or not! But they said they would fax it to the Hospital today so hopefully I'll be sorted out soon.

[minxpinx]

Same thing happened to me and I missed the slot for the test. I wad soooo angry. Luckily everything was fine, but I wonder what I would have done if it wasn't.

[zipzap]

It's probably little consolation to you but it is worth keeping on top of - with DS1 the hospital lost my booking in info 6 times over 6 weeks!

Eventually the receptionist at the GP surgery (feeling sorry for me and hacked off at having to repeat something so many times) faxed it over to her friend who worked at the hospital who put it on the right person's desk, explained what happened and told me that I should have an appointment within an hour, to call her if I didn't.

Well, I didn't (no surprise there), so the receptionist's friend (RF) went back to speak to the person who said that she didn't have it, had never had it, it would have to be sent again etc. At which point the RF went to the head midwife and I had a very apologetic person on the phone a few minutes later, making the appropriate appointments .

motto of the story - don't assume anything and keep on to both the hospital and the GP. Don't know if you are able to self refer to the hospital or at least get your name onto a waiting list so that you can hold your place in the queue so to speak, rather than have to wait for the gp referral to come through?

good luck and hope it all gets sorted soon!