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
Feel like you've been given a really hard time here for no reason.
Of course that time frame isn't long enough notice! Because you are entitled to time off for scans etc, they believe you can just drop everything at drop of a button which is unfair.
Glad you managed to get your appointment rearranged, sorry that your have to wait though. I hope all goes well & congratulations on your pregnancy!

"So, when you attend your appointment and you are sat staring at the posters telling you how much money was lost as a result of patients who failed to attend theirs, can we safely now assume that a significant proportion of these people quite possibly had no idea the appointment even existed?"

Giles - yes. My father has had quite a few appts like this - where the letter has arrived the day AFTER the appt was supposed to be attended. He doesn't make the appts himself, the clinic he attends makes them for him and sends them to him (follow up prostate cancer appts) - but he doesn't always get the letter in time. It's a ridiculous state of affairs.

Frilly - you're being given an unnecessarily hard time here by people who don't understand your work situation - including the Sister you spoke to. YANBU, the notice was too short, you could have been anywhere the day following your appt, including the other side of the country! Hope you can get sorted - and don't worry too much about it being not exactly 20w - pretty sure my 20w scan happened between 21 and 22weeks, and that was fine. :)

Gosh, I'm sorry the appointment for your free health care is inconvenient for you.

Ring and ask ifvthe letter is wrong. But don't just turn up on the original day. Clinics with appointments are difficult enough to run on time, without you knowing going on the wrong day.

OP I get your frustration. It's an over worked and over stretched service that isn't being funded properly. The result is patients like yourself being messed around.

Just look around this thread to see how many people are quick to suggest the NHS is loaded and rubbish etc. No wonder people are predicting an election victory for someone who wants to carve up more of the NHS and award contracts to US private health firms to run for a profit.
That's the mantra of this government. Run down public services until people get pissed off then offer to improve it by privatising it to your mates and companies you have interests in

Only got to the end of page 3.

Sorry people are being so hard on you OP. I don't think it would be unreasonable to turn up at original appointment as long as u know they may not fit u in. But if it was me I would give it a try.

They should have called to reschedule as that would have given u more notice.

Also I hate the argument about 'you are legally entitled to time off'

That is true my employer are very accommodating but I am a team player and even if I am 'entitled' I don't like to make it difficult for my colleagues so I gave notice and wouldn't have cancelled meetings at a days notice either (my job is not even that important but I don't like to let people down or give team members more to do)

Hope you get your scan soon and enjoy it. I wouldn't think it would be a problem to reschedule many people have to go back as baby in wrong position. X

MM try reading the thread and not being a sarcastic wally.

At least you got one day notice. I have had an appointment time changed on the same day. The hospital was an hour away so I had to drop everything and leave immediately.

I work in the NHS.

It has a huge number of failings, plenty of which are found in the shocking administration of out patient appointments. This has been going on for years, and is not caused by today's ever tighter budgets. I'm the first to say the NHS needs shedloads more money but the admin is shit and has been for years.

The attitude that every patient can just drop everything for a late appointment change is the height of arrogance. People travel for work, work freelance, have to arrange childcare, may be away doing their stint with their elderly parents. They may be teachers, health care workers or police officers who can't just swap shifts.

I was working freelance for a while. If I didn't work, I didn't get paid. I knew my work dates in advance, and carefully planned everything else around them. I rang to book an out-patient procedure, and I was delighted they could find a time and a date which suited me, my DH (who was needed to drive me there and back) and got us back before school finished (so no need to arrange childcare).

I then went away for a couple of weeks - a work conference followed by ten days looking after an elderly relative. When I got back there was a lot of mail, including a pack from the hospital, for my appointment the week after. A few days later I sat down to read the pack in detail and discovered they had changed the date to a day I was working and my DH was in another country. I rang up and asked if there was a mistake. I had to leave three messages before one was actually returned. It wasn't a mistake. I explained I couldn't do it as I wouldn't get paid. "Oh but then we won't hit our targets for seeing people within x weeks of referral". "Why are you cancelling so late". I repeated, politely, I was not cancelling, that they had changed the date, and that I hadn't been at home to see the letter before that week (plus it had taken them three days to reply to my message). I was left with the very firm impression that I was selfish for actually wanting to get paid that month (if I had missed one day, I would have missed all of that project, so no money that month). I wouldn't dream of blaming the booking person at the clinic for the administrative failings of the NHS. I do object to that booking person trying to blame me for the NHS's failings and trying to guilt me into losing pay to improve efficiency statistics.

Oh for fucks sake, of course people have other plans outside of their health. Imagine being a clinician trying to fit in appointments around their own clinical caseload. An acquaintance of mine needed emergency leave to stay with her hospitalised 1 year old today, resulting in the cancellation of 13 patients. Shit happens.

But this wasn't a "shit happens" event. The clinic was deliberately overbooked and it would seem that there was no phone call.

Would the op have been unreasonable to just turn up for the appointment anyway? Undoubtedly- and op admits this.

Is she unreasonable to be annoyed that she has to rearrange her own work to accommodate the new appointment? Of course not. Imagine op was a Dr or nurse - would she be unreasonable to be annoyed then?

Agree to an extent Snork

But the problem with admin is that all the focus in the last 2 decades has been on getting more clinical staff in. Grass roots admin posts have been cut, staff have had mass demotions and are expected to do more with less. Clinical staff are also now expected to do more paperwork, which if there were adequate support resources would mean that they could spend more time doing what they joined the NHS to do: care for patients.

The private hospitals are just as bad
I had surgery privately at Spire and see the surgeon for follow up. I haven't had a single appointment he hasn't changed after we have booked it. Sometimes with only a few days notice after the appointment was arranged for 6 months!

Glad you got it sorted for next week OP.
YWNBU it was too short notice.
I've had similar issues with DS paediatrician cancelling appointments at short notice. According to the hospital booking line DS last appointment was cancelled because the paediatrician was on holiday. Surely they must have known about a holiday in advance?
Sometimes the NHS is just very disorganised and I say that as an ex a&e nurse.

Ohforfox - not just that - the hospital I used to work at, they tried to outsource the admin/letters etc. to an Indian centre. That meant that the letters had to be dictated onto a recording device, sent to India for transcription, then get sent back, printed and posted. It didn't work AT ALL, owing to language issues, lack of knowledge of the subject matter, time delays etc. etc but in the meantime half the original admin staff had been laid off (no longer required). I think it was only a small area of the hospital they trialled it in, and then didn't roll it out to the rest (It was over 10 years ago, I can't remember exactly) but it was a monumental disaster.

Yep, had that too.

I managed a team of 4, 3 of which were band 4s.

"Management" decided that they could be downbanded to 3s because the letters went to India. Within 6 months it became apparent that this meant even more work for the team as the letters coming back were shit. Yet the girls were still demoted

Beyond fucking shit

Crap, innit. :(

OP just RTWT and YWNBU to be annoyed. I know that lots of people have come on here with negative stories about the NHS but I have had excellent care through 3 pregnancies and 2 births so far. I am saying that because I want to say that you are not being 'entitled' to expect better service. Despite cuts most of the NHS provides better service than you have had. Are you giving birth in the same hospital? If you are unhappy with the care they are providing you don't have to go private but could look into whether another NHS hospital would suit you better. Dont lose faith in them because of this. It's bad service and you should complain but I hope unlikely to happen again. I wish you the best with your scan, mine is next Thursday and I am very excited, would be gutted to receive a letter cancelling it on Wednesday.

Call them.

When I worked for the NHS we got waiting times down for some appointments so they were only a day or two.

We were bit allowed to extend the date because then our waiting times would have increased.

We were posting letters on the Monday for appointments on the Tuesday knowing the patients who were working would have left the house before the post arrived and that many of the people who were not working would have issues with transport or childcare.

I would def turn up and deny knowledge of change. Letter might be an error anyway.

Appointments get cancelled for lots of reasons and can be at short notice. YABU to ignore change but to make sure phone in to check, you will probably be given reason if it has. If you feel hurt by this albeit important to you, try coping with cancer follow up being changed twice, taking three months to get new appointment. Your appointment is unlikely to be life threatening so be reasonable.

I can add to the waste of resources. Every time I am called for an appointment I get two letters, sent first class because once I didn't get a letter they were adamant they had sent..

It's alright for the NHS to take the piss out of us though. Please remember we are paying national insurance..it's not really free. We are paying for a service. There should be more notice. And a phone call would have been more appropriate..knowing full well it's been easter so the letter would have taken more time to arrive and people may be on holiday.

Agree BITCAT, but I think that just turning up for an appointment you know has been cancelled is asking for trouble, especially when it's something as important as a 20w scan.

However, the hospital in this case have acted like total asses - sorry to the OP if I didn't seem on your side in my post yesterday x

The fact is the management of the NHS is dire. Why they overbooked in the first place is beyond me. It is such a basic task.

My father is undergoing cancer treatment right now. There is absolutely no back up in the system and that is 100% managements fault. The number of times I have flown to the UK from the US to take him in for a procedure to have it cancelled is mind blowing. I work FT and have 3DC. Yes I can work from my Dads home now I have him set up with wifi but it is a huge inconvenience to myself and everyone working under and over me.

Last year there were 6 last minute reschedules. Total cost to me was in the thousands. The major operation was rescheduled twice because only only surgeon could operate and he had worked too many hours. Why he couldn't observe someone else doing the procedures I do not know. Meanwhile I was flying back to the US to give a presentation to a Fortune 500 audit committee in the AM and flying back in the PM to take my Dad to hospital the next morning. The NHS manager overseeing the booking in before the operation had a nerve to complain that we were half an hour late. I had landed at 6:45am, taken a car service to my Dads with the baby, gotten him into the car and the baby before heading off to the hospital. I wanted to scream at her and slap some sense into her. I had just been through hell to accommodate them and their inefficiency/incompetence. I told her I hadn't slept in two days and had flown 6000 miles to accommodate her incompetence at managing resources efficiently.

When I was pregnant with DS, I once sat for 5 hours waiting for a scheduled scan appointment. There were 3 sonographers. 1 had called in sick or something, so the other two were picking up the slack. I sat and waited and watched 1 of them clock off at 5pm precisely. The other one, utter heroine, stayed and saw all the rest of us until well past 7pm.

I can't believe your 'appointment' will be wasted, at the very least it'll speed things up for the everyone else waiting as these things always overrun (I had a lot of scans). And of course you're allowed to be nervous and excited despite the medical setting. Of bloody course you are, it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise. for you OP and hoping everything goes well for you!

as others have said they may have had to cancel an appoinment for whatever reason and you could be wasting your own time by going It happend to me at short notice for my daughter;s ENT appoinment ( the day before as audiologist was ill )