To ignore the letter I've received from the hospital?

[Frillyhorseyknickers]

After my 12 week scan I booked an appointment with the reception for my 20 week scan, for tomorrow.

We've just come home from bank holiday away and I received a letter either Friday or Saturday stating a different day (the day after) for my scan.

I was really miffed because I'd been looking forward to my scan (first pregnancy) and my diary is full now for the next few weeks. I had kept tomorrow afternoon free for the scan, but otherwise I am between four offices and I can't just free up a few hours at short notice.

My DH says we should go to the appointment tomorrow as booked and just discard the letter and deny all knowledge of it.

I feel really bad about doing that as it's NHS and they are obviously busy. DHs point is that we booked the appointment weeks ago, they have given us less than one working day's notice of the change and they are taking the piss.

WIBU to just turn up to the appointment I had arranged prior to this letter?

Frilly I hope you get an appointment next week and they don't muck you about again. Which exactly what they did in the first place. Although it sounds as though they're still being pants with you on the phone even today.

Try not to let all the mean spirited, non empathetic comments on here get to you. I suspect 99% of them would feel exactly the same as you if it happened to them. Just saying.

Hope your anomaly scan goes well, sure it will 😊

She did say that I had employment rights to take time off work for my appointments and work should have accommodated my appointment tomorrow, and it is likely to be "lost" now, due to the short notice of my cancelling my appointment tomorrow.

He attitude says it all. A total lack of understanding of that fact that just because you have "rights" to take the time off, you will still annoy your employer if you do it without notice and cause the business problems which could ultimately have an impact on your future career. Also, as others have said, if they don't want appointments to be "lost" they need to step up and notify people by telephone of short notice appointment changes. They certainly manage to do it in some NHS departments and also manage to phone patients on the waiting list to see if they can make the appointment if appropriate.

This thread has been a perfect example of why throwing money at the NHS is not necessarily the solution.

They are incapable of filling an empty scan slot with 24 hours notice. Why? That's a scandal in and of itself.

Exactly Gloria- it's hardly impossible

They are incapable of filling an empty scan slot with 24 hours notice. Why? That's a scandal in and of itself

If they yelled out in the waiting room right now for anyone due a 20 week scan in the next week or two they'd fill the slot in a second.

There must be someone maybe even a staff member who could use the appointment...

When I read these sorts of things on MN, I have to consciously remind myself to not move too far to the right.

I don't want to be one of these people who hates the NHS, but good grief. Some accountability wouldn't go amiss.

Do you know what, I'm just a little annoyed that it was almost turned back onto me during my conversation with the ward sister, my fault for not accommodating the appointment at short notice.

I was really looking forwards to my 20week scan and I'm sorry if some posters find that bizarre or ridiculous. It's my first pregnancy, I'm a bit neurotic and since my 12 week scan I have been quietly counting down to my 20 week scan where fingers crossed hopefully everything is going OK in there.

I've never done this before and I don't have many friends who are mums. I was just looking forwards to (hopefully) some reassurance and a chance to see our baby. I'm a little perplexed so many posters think that is so bizarre. But hey - 8 days and counting (fingers crossed)

Thanks for all the help.

Gloria I think accountability is the issue. In local govt, the majority can be kicked out. In policing, there are now PCCs accountable to the public. The NHS has zero accountability at a level that means anything i.e. at a local level. It also is not poorly funded - it has tons of land for example (more than Tesco, so I'm told). But it spends its money badly because there is no accountability so there's no incentive for anyone to end some of the madness.

Just give the hospital bookings team a call, 2 minute phone call and you'll know what day to turn up! :)

It's not ridiculous to look forward to your 20 week scan Frilly. Please don't ever think it is; in fact, I think it would be a bit abnormal if you didn't look forward to it.

Fwiw I look forward to each time I hear little one's heartbeat on the SonicAid - there is something comforting and reassuring about it.

You have had a really hard time from some posters on here OP.

Some people are ridiculously and fiercely protective of the NHS, when quite frankly parts of it it can be shit and very poorly organised.

The doctors, surgeons, nurses and other patient facing staff are amazing, but the NHS has been spoilt by those higher up and politicians who don't have a clue what they are doing.

Yanbu to be annoyed and inconvenienced by the appointment change especially with it being short notice. I would feel like just turning up and playing dumb myself, but chances are it would be a waste of my time more than anyone else's.

The NHS isn't doing you a favour, it's paid for by the taxpayer and you are entitled to utilise it.

So what if you were looking forward to the scan, it's an exciting time, as well as nerve wracking wanting to check the baby is ok.

There should be something else in place to deal with emergencies and other patients with short notice needs. Existing appointments shouldn't be compromised. That's unfair and causes more problems if the patient is simply unable to attend the updated appointment. Often appointments are just given without discussion, some patients just can't work like that especially self employed people.

The antenatal clinic I attend is often approx 2 hours behind schedule, and I make no apologies for making my dissatisfaction known.
It isn't the midwives fault. But it's still shit. End of.

Last time I was there, I was kept waiting 1 hour 45 minutes past my appointment time. I had more than enough time to collect my daughter from school based on the original time I was given, and was left stressed rushing like mad as there was nobody else to collect her at short notice.
If I hadn't complained and shown how pissed off I was I would have been kept waiting even longer, or either had to miss the appointment I had waited all that time for which was important and couldn't really be missed (anti D), or left my 4 year old at school with a teacher rightly pissed off at being kept behind.

Just because it's the precious NHS doesn't mean patients should be messed about and expected to rearrange their existing commitments, especially at such short notice.

It is e everything that is wrong with the NHS. The NHS is owned and funded by us all - every member of the public. My local A&E xept has up a big notice under the diktat (actually that corrected to dimtat which is apposite) of NHS England. It says tbs NHS isn't free for everyone. And there we have the problem - if NHS England doesn't know it's free only at the point of delivery, what hope is there.

We are net contributors. The NHS is not free to my family. I refuse to be grateful for poor service. I had my babies 20 years ago in 1994, 1997 and 1998. It was better in 1994 under the Major Government than it was in 1997 and 1998 under Blair. What was inherited in 2010 was no better than what was inherited in 1997.

The NHS needs to be stripped of personal politics. Those who work in it are likely to be more socially liberal than others and therefore there is a high concentration of left wi g belief within the system. The system was doomed to fail from the minute Bevan stuffed the doctors mouths with gold to bring them on side. The personal politics,need to be replaced with realism of what is possible, what is reasonable and what level of service should be available to all, what is optional, and how it needs funding moving forward.

The last time I attended A&E with my teenage dd who has,mental health problems the triage nurse sat, resting her doc marten on her knee, chewing gum. o care, no interest, no basic respect. The set up was like something out of little Britain. After four hours we left and sought private treatment the following day. It was not something I'd have handed over a bank card to receive, it is not a,standard of service I am prepared to continue funding.

A 20 week scan is v v v exciting
Don't let the misery guts brigade spoil it for you.

Of course look forward to your scan OP and ignore any nasty posts.

It is so, so frustrating when they do this. I get this when I have a annual checkup with a nurse. The only way to make an appointment is to phone the surgery as nurse appointments aren't on their online booking system. Phone will be engaged for hours. So they send you a letter, which always seems to be a date I can't make. So back on the phone. It's like your inconvenience is much more important then yours. Same with Hospital appointments.

Hope the scan goes well.

They may have mistyped the letter. That happened to me. Ring them to double check the date. If you really can't make it, tell them you would like to rearrange. However, there is an expectation that you attend when they can fit you in, not the other way around. And employers are supposed to allow you to attend these appointments. If you have an employer that refuses, I'd be inclined to note down everything they are being difficult about throughout the pregnancy in case you ever need to raise a grievance.

You are being RIDICULOUS. Your employer has to accommodate your appointments. Don't be an arse.

Sorry but your packet diary come second to the poor medical staff and their overbooked clinic.
Suck it up and go when you are supposed to. In a few years you will be paying for this service. Don't abuse it

All the posters who think the OP dhould have ignored her packed diary and taken the rescheduled appt, I bet you would be pissed if it was you who'd booked an appt with the OP weeks in advance and then she dropped you at the last minute. The nhs should be capable of booking appts accurately or phoning a patient!

I was teaching when pg with my first. I tried to book as many of my appts as posdible for outside of school hours, although obviously with scans you can't. My bosses used to get irritated by a svan taking practically the whole day, because they had to get cover for my lessons. I was teaching GCSE classes at that time - there are some jobs where you feel really bad if you don't go because other people are depending on you.

*Possible. Can spell, honestly. Just have fat fingers!

Appointments are cancelled due to poor organisation at times, and sometimes they are cancelled for good reasons of course.

I am done with feeling 'grateful' for the NHS we have now though. I am not grateful that my husband has had to wait since Xmas to get an appointment he needs with a care-co due to poor organisation. I am not grateful for having my appointments cancelled regularly. Many of the patients I help care for aren't grateful when they have wet the bed because there wasn't enough staff to get to them in time or their operation has been cancelled for the third time.

The NHS have let my husband down so badly that I was left to pick up the pieces, and they continue to do so. I could tell a load of stories where he has been messed around and left alone when he needed the help the most. I don't blame the front line staff. I am a NA and know how hard they work with that they have got.

We have become a nation of people who are getting used to shit care and we are still saying we are grateful for what we get. We need to stop being grateful for shit care and expect better, instead of being grateful for the crumbs we get.

It amazes me that they think its fine to write so that you get one days notice of the change of date, but aren't happy with you cancelling 'at short notice'. You couldn't cancel with more notice because you didn't KNOW that was when it was until then! And if you'd had adequate notice, you wouldn't have needed to cancel.
Hope you enjoy the scan next week OP, and sorry you've had such a hard time for taking your work commitments seriously.

Oh frilly I do feel for you - so many nasty people on here! Yes the NHS is full of amazing people doing incredible work within an overstretched and underresourced system but this doesn't mean we have to just accept it and think it's wonderful!
I have similar work issues to you as I work for clients to tight deadlines and rearranging things at incredibly short notice is just not the way to keep clients happy and get repeat business. Obviously this doesn't matter in an emergency but shouldn't have to come second to a routine appointment arranged 2 months ago.
I'm glad you have managed to get another date - the FMC on Harley St are amazing as a few have said by the way, but it is honestly better to use them as additional and stay in the NHS system as there is so little private maternity care you can't get follow up unless you are London based. I have a pregnancy related liver condition which my private healthcare technically would cover to allow me to have my planned early admission and delivery - but no hospitals to get private treatment in anywhere in my area.
Anyway, good luck and take care. I hope all goes well with your scan