to think 8.20am is a stupid time for a hospital appointment?

[faintpinkline]

I'm pregnant and have been told I need consultant led care because of my history. I've received the appointment letter for 8.20 on a Monday morning. I already have one child who needs to get to school and dp won't be there as he works away during the week. Obviously at 8.20 I'll be dealing with getting dd to school. Also I don't drive and the hospital is miles away - even if I could get there I'd need to leave about 6.45am to get there by bus so getting child care for Dd would be nearly impossible

I phone the hospital, explained the situation and they said that's fine we'll send you a new appointment. I've just received one for 8.20 on the Tuesday morning - strangely the same situation applies. I phoned again and was told "most women prefer early appointments and the consultant can not change the appointment again to suit you". I told them DP was back on Thursday night so I could do Friday morning as a possibility only to be told that the consultant only works Monday to Wednesday. I asked to be transferred to a different consultant which is apparently not possible either.

Sorry for such a long post just really upset and I don't want anyone knowing I'm pregnant yet either so hard to ask friends for help.

chocolatespread and catsareevil, almost all my midwife, ultrasound and consultant appointments at UCHL for DD1 have operated on that system. Clinic starts at whatever o'clock, patients are seen in order of arrival. The last person to arrive will be the last person to be seen. I never waited less than an hour to be seen for any appointment.

Have moved and am now attening Royal Surrey for DC2. For my last consultants appointment i waited 4 hours to be seen. i got stuck in a traffic logjam and was 20 minutes late to book in. All of my midwife appointments at my GP's have operated on the same principle. Antenatal midwife clinic is from 2pm -4pm on Tuesdays. Everyone gets todl to turn up for 2pm. Midwife sees them in the order they arrive.

OP, given you have clearly been given a clinic time rather than an individual appointment time i would take DD to school as early as possible and then jump a cab to the hospital. You will be late booking in and will have to suck up the additional waiting time but at least you will be seen. Take a good book with you though.

Hope the MS gets better.

YANBU It is meant to be the National Health SERVICE.

You aren't being picky, you will have a genuine difficulty making the appointment. Would they prefer you not to be treated, with the consequences that might entail?

Phone them back and insist on speaking to someone with a little more imagination or tell them you will be making a complaint.

I would kill for an early morning appointment like that, to fit around work and not have to deal with a sniffy boss.

You need to arrange childcare or pull in a few favours for one off, exceptional but important appointments like this. There's nothing in the OP that can't be overcome with a little planning and extra arrangement on your part (taxi, family providing childcare, your DH arranging annual leave if he can swing it, neighbours, good god - anything really). There is no real reason here other than the OP doesn't find it convenient based upon her household arrangments (she doesn't drive, another child needs to go to school, and her DH works away).

I'm all for the NHS trying, where possible, to make it as easy as possible when it comes to access, but, JESSU, I can't believe how much some people expect the NHS to fit around their lifestyle on some threads.

As for asking if the consultant could do a Friday morning - I'm surprised the receptionist didn't laugh out loud. It's not a fucking hair appointment you're scheduling you know.

I say this as someone who waited many many weeks last year to get an outpatient appointment for a very worrying condition (don't wish to reveal here, frankly) and then had to deal with a boss who was a right bastard when I wanted the morning off after I told him 3 weeks in advance of when the appointment actually came through. (Which involved a letter explaning that it could not be re-arranged once the appointment was confirmed as accepted.) So perhaps I'm a little raw on this point!

Have you contacted the hospital and ask if this is the time you will actually be seen? I only ask because when I saw the consultant when I was pregnant with DD2 it turned out that the same time was given to a batch of people and then it was a case of first come, first served. If that is the case you may not need to be there at that exact time.

3 days a week is about right for a consultant as they dont just run clinics, they also have inpatient ward rounds to attend to, and at present the hospitals are absolutely stuffed full, if your consultant is a surgeon, then he/she will have theatre lists too.

They will have fitted you in as an urgent, this will have meant that someone else waiting months for an appointment will be put back.
The appointment isnt to annoy or inconveneince you, (although very distressing in your circumstances) and it is not to please eevryone, its to aid in the smooth running of a frantically busy clinic thats all.

You may have to think around the problem, poss take your daughter in later and take her along with you in a taxi, that way everyone wins, its only one morning isnt it.
sympathies with the morning sickness, its a wretched feeling i know

Harriet - I'm surprised UCHL are running such a system, and it's working. However if this was the case for OP, I'm sure they would have told her when she rang, then she could drop her child of to school and attend. If this system is not running at the hospital she is attending, she will be late for her appointment, which could result in her not seeing the consultant at all.

I've called the hospital again. It is a clinic and it appears I can turn up late but will probably not been seen until nearly lunch time as a result as it is first come first seen. I wish they'd told me this in the first place. Ah well I've always wanted to read War and Peace so now may be the time to start

Good news OP. I wonder why they found that so difficult to explain?

I agree, their communication is dreadful. This should have been explained when you very first rang.

Many people do prefer early appointments so they can get to work, I have seen the lack of GP appointments at this sort of time bemoaned on MN many a time. Could a friend/school parent take your other child this day?

That is good news.
If only the receptionist had told you when you phoned, would have saved a lot of worry and stress.
Good luck with the rest of the pregnancy.

YANBU.

I still think thats a totally disrespectful way of running an appointments system. An awful lot of wasted hours of people sitting in a clinic.
Also, if that had been explained to the OP in the first place then she wouldnt have had to alter her appointment.

I would be tempted to make a formal complaint about that appointments system. Its entirely possible to have a system that remains efficient for the clinicians that doesnt involve everyone turning up at the same time and sitting about for hours.

the early appointments where I work ( a dental surgery) are always booked MONTHS in advance, so YABU a bit, people like appointments before work

They should at least be able to tell you that for that clinic they have 20 people booked in for 08:20 which would be a good indicator that you don't need to turn up on the dot of the appointment time. Which would give you the time to take your dd to school normally and without great expense.

I can see why you wouldn't want your dd there; it's scary how much ds1 overhears and comes out later when you think he's not around or listening. (especially when you want him to answer you and he deliberately ignores you - yet once you whisper chocolate from the other side of the house hes there do you know he can hear you).

I'd also say speak to the consultant's secretary to see of she can offer any advice - she's probably used to dealing with pg women that are stressed and will be able to help!

Good luck - with the appointment and the pg!

What are your priorities? If your medical needs are trumped by the inconvenience of an 8.20 appt. the nthey can't be that serous; if they are that serious then make the effort.

Jeez.

As a consultant, can I just say that we do not generally have any control over the way that appointments are booked, so the poster who said that the consultant would book 5 people in for 8.20 and then see them as they turned up is blaming the wrong person! This is something that has been devised by managers to try and increase efficiency but usually ends up maximising frustration on both sides! When patients complain to me that I am 'running late' (obviously there are no managers in my clinic to take the flak) I sometimes show them my clinic list which may have 4 people booked on at 2.20, for example.

And my clinics are very, very firmly fixed - often a year in advance! - as I too have to organise childcare/ward work/procedures/holidays very carefully. So if you explain your situation to the consultant, he or she may understand more than you think!

Good luck with your appointment. I hope the consultant is good and knowledgeable and communicates well - when I am on the other side of the fence as a patient, that is the thing that trumps the frustrating admin side.

verysmellyeli

Do you have no input into the way that your clinics are organised?

Cats I try - believe me! I can specify a template, but that usually goes out of the window if the clinic is overbooked, as it usually is because we don't have enough of us to see all the patients who are referred. But it is like banging your head against a wall. Consultants are no longer revered, Sir Lancelot type figures (some would say that is a good thing!) who can click their fingers for things to happen. Sometimes I can feel more like unit of healthcare delivery. It can be very frustrating, as it is my name on the door and on the noticeboard, so everyone presumes I am completely in charge of how it all runs.

In one clinic, I don't even get a hot drink any more because of health and safety........

That sounds really frustrating. It isnt like that in all areas. Do patients not complain about having their time wasted so pointlessly?

verysmelleli that puts a whole different preservative on things. To be honest I was of a mood to blame the consultant for running what sounds to be on the face of it a really silly system but from what you have said its down to strange ideas about admin and you are left to deal with the fallout.

I also hope he's a good consultant. I'm scared, really scared and feel like trying to have a baby is some kind of Russian Roulette game. I desperately want this baby but am so frightened of whats going to happen.

As for the hot drinks being banned that's just stupid - I want my doctor to be relaxed and content not flustered by patients who are blaming them for things running late and not even being able to have a cup of coffee.

Verysmellyeli - sorry, I didn't mean to imply that it was the consultant's fault, I should have said that the clinic is booked on the "everyone here for 8.30" system.

It has to be said that although this system is frustrating for those of us who do turn up on time for appointments, I can see that it does reduce the impact of wasted appointments when patients don't attend. If the 10.30 and 11.00 patients don't turn up then that's an hour of NHS time wasted, whereas if everyone's there for the start of the clinic then the consultant can get straight through her/his list, and the clinic clerks can get everyone organised much more easily and not have to juggle everyone else to fill in empty slots.

I guess you just have to go along and take a damned good book (or invest in a supply of crap mags).

Don't worry Harriet I get as frustrated as everyone else with the whole system.

faintpinkline I really hope you get someone who you can trust to guide you through this pregnancy well - it sounds like you've been through a lot. I am not an obstetrician but all the ones I know are lovely! So I'm glad to have helped a bit in you forming hopefully a good relationship with your new consultant. Really good luck.

OP you may find when you get there that your consultant has a registrar working alongside him/her and that you can limit the time you have to wait by seeing that registrar instead. I did this today - appointment was at 10.50, there were three people already waiting when I got there, one of whom had been waiting for an hour. The appointments were individually timed but the consultant kept getting called away to an emergency (orthopaedics).
Having worked out what was happening, I asked the nurse in charge if there was anyone else I could see. She asked the consultant and he agreed that the registrar could give me the results of my scan. In and out in 20 mins.