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?

For most women the scan provides welcome reassurance that all is well.

I get you op. And I think you've been given a hard time here.

I had to change my 20 week appointment as the bill I was working on was in the Lords that afternoon and we were in ping pong. Cue lots of bosom heaving and comments that "we only change appointments for funerals" . Plus lots of patronising advice about how my employer had to give me time off.

I really do think the NHS does need to wake up to the fact that you can't just drop professional appointments at short notice.

As others have suggested, it's worth calling them to check as their admin may have got it wrong.

I see why they rearrange by letter - they can work out where to fit all the rearranged appointments in then mail merge a standard letter out and presumably slot it into the general outgoing mail system. The marginal cost will be relatively small. If they call everyone to rearrange they have to catch the person when they are able to talk, listen to complaints about being messed about (which, however legitimate they may be, are not something the NHS person calling is going to be able to anything about), discuss when is a convenient time, book it, and then go through the calendar and work out what to do with any empty slots that the rearranged people did not take up. After all that you'll also have the cases where either the patient or the NHS staff person inadvertently put the wrong date/time in the diary - and there is no paper trail to refer back to and correct from.

When there's no negotiation to be had, a letter can be a very cost effective way of doing things. It may not be the best way for the patient, but that's not necessarily the goal for the NHS admin, who have to consider use of resources too.

You can't take that approach though when there's so little time between the letter going out and the day of the appointment.

Anything less than 24 hours cancellation with things like childcare or tickets and you face losing the money altogether and having to pay out again for the same thing.

You also need time to respond. Impossible when a letter arrives in the post Friday you arrive home in the evening after work and a a weekend and a bank holiday costs you three days of being able to check there's been no mix up etc

Not good enough

I get it, OP.

I'm a solicitor for a huge firm. I felt like you when I was pregnant. Work came first, antenatal appointments were a bit of an inconvenience because it meant time out of the office etc. and I had to make sure I was really well organised for them. I was very 🙄 when they were rearranged or ran late and all I could think about was getting back to work.

Then I had a bleed at 28 weeks with my second pregnancy. I was terrified. All was fine, thankfully, but the midwife told me I needed to take things easier and "prioritise" my baby's health over work.

It was a wake up call.

It would also be difficult for people to arrange transport too.

It would have resulted in having to rearrange the appointment a third time which in time sensitive cases such as ultra sounds or long term treatments could be extremely dangerous

A private scan is not likely to perform a FASP standard anomaly scan. Private scans are mainly bonding scans. Some private companies are not using qualified sonographers to perform scans (recently a Welsh company missed a major abnormality during a scan because they were not using qualified staff.. but had brought a machine and had taught themselves to scan.)
If they were to find an abnormality during scan how would the private scan deal with it? They would need to re-referr you to the NHS and rescan you. Delaying diagnosis and treatment for you and your baby.

There are several reasons the scan may have been cancelled.

• scan incorrectly booked into the wrong time frame slot (you need a half hour scan slot.. you may have only been given 15minutes accidentally)
• staff shortages. No sonographers or Drs present to deal with scan if there is an issue
• machine services / problems

Hospitals do generally ring and send a letter out.
However the majority of people who don't answer their phones, change numbers or have given incorrect numbers is beyond ridiculous. People can't always answer their phones during the day while their at work then missing hospital calls. The office staff can't spend all day trying to ring people, they will try once and then follow up with a letter.
Due to confidentially the majority are not allowed to leave a verbal message on an answer phone either asking patient to call back.

Wonder what responses would have been if the op had said:

Got back from me mam's today and the hospital have written cancelling my scan tomorrow. We're on benefits and I booked our bus tickets in advance and can't get a refund. The new appointment is nxt week and we just can't stretch to finding another £8.70 so soon.

Same issue.

If you are going to go private I also recommend the Fetal Medicine Centre. It's in Harley Street in London, and the Anomoly scan can be done from 20 to 24 weeks. We had both the 12 week and Anomaly scan done by them when I was pregnant, and were very happy with how thorough they were. The NHS Obstetricians were happy to use the scan results from the FMC also as they are very highly regarded.

Op try and go private. The care is so much better without the faff over letters rearranging appointments at the last minute. It is annoying when you pay so much for a decent service but it simply doesn't exist.

"Whilst I understand your position you need to make arrangements re work. You are entitled to these appointments and sometimes work needs to work around you."

This. I don't know about pregnancy care, but with the NHS in general you don't get to choose your appointments at times that are convenient for work. Most employers know how it works and you're entitled to time off for these appointments anyway.

Yanbu. And you have listened to other posters. Can't believe the archaic system of sending letters re appointments! And yes, professional client facing consulting firms expect that employees have no other call on them.

"And yes, professional client facing consulting firms expect that employees have no other call on them."

That's stupid because they know that pregnant women have a right to time off for ante-natal stuff and they also know that it's not the patient who decides when the NHS will see them.

Ginlinessisnexttogodliness

I understand some woman are apprehensive about getting a scan. I myself lost my baby very late in pregnancy. I still looked forward to scans in my following pregnancy.

"I really don't like that we are getting to a place where having NHS treatment means accepting lowest-common-denominator standards of administrative professionalism. I think we have every right to expect a bit better than this."

Exactly this. The system is groaning, I get that. But the lower our expectations get, the more excuse for the tories to further gut the system. It's not 'entitled' to expect more than 24 hours notice for changing a long-booked appointment (except in case of dire emergency), and for it not to happen by letter but rather by phone, and for there to be an explanation as to why the change is necessary. Sometimes low resources get used as a catch-all excuse for what is actually administrative incompetence. In addition, the idea that pregnant women's time is worth nothing is endemic in the system - it's a culture as well as a consequence of lack of resources. It doesn't happen in other parts of the NHS.

Hi frilly . God, you're getting a tough time on here.

My local hospital rescheduled my 20 week scan from a Monday to the previous Sunday (?) over the phone on about a day's notice, then rang again to move it from 4pm to 2pm, then rang again to move it to 9am. I turned up at 9am to find the system expecting me at 2pm. I explained that x had called requesting me at 9am. I was seen straight away. In your circs I would call or try turning up if it isn't an inconvenience to you.

Meh, I think you're being entirely reasonable OP. Some people have very low expectations of the NHS.

Maybe my experience is unusual (it may be considering the posts here), but only once (12 week scan) have I been 'assigned' an appointment time in pregnancy. The rest have been to suit my convenience as well as the doctor/midwife/sonographer. We work out roughly when an appointment is, and then we discuss what day and time is most convenient for me.

There was a mix up with the date for my GTT, where it had been booked in wrongly, which was frustrating, but then it was rebooked at my convenience.

The NHS isn't free, it is funded by our taxes, and we deserve a decent service. Hopefully it was just an error, and you can be seen tomorrow, but if not, they have messed you around, and it isn't right. Its also not as easy as some people think to just make last minute (non emergency) appointments. Not all employers are that flexible in reality, and lots of us are too loyal to our own clients to mess them around in the same way the NHS messed you around.

I'd go to the appointment (if not too far) and explain the situation. Don't mention going private, and stress that its going to be impossible for you to rearrange with work for weeks. If they have had to cancel the clinic in its entirety, then you're screwed for being seen tomorrow, but if there was a mix up, or they've just had to reduce the clinic, there's a chance.

OP, I can't believe the pasting you have gotten on here. "Entitled" would be insisting on a precise date and time for your 20 week scan as soon as you got a pregnancy test. Booking an appointment with 8 weeks notice and arranging the rest of our work schedule so that the entire afternoon of your appointment is free, is NOT entitled. It also partly explains why the remainder of your work week is so packed if you are trying to fit in tasks that would have ordinarily been carried out on your appointment day. While it may at times be unavoidable, you are not unreasonable to be annoyed that your original appointment was cancelled with one day's notice. You are DEFINITELY not unreasonable to be annoyed that the offered replacement is just one day after that. Many many people do not have the flexibility to accommodate that - whether it is because you are on a zero-hours contract, a high-pressured job (the highest pressure, sometimes in different ways, tends to be right at the top and the bottom of the earnings ladder), perhaps you have caring responsibilities or another medical appointment or jury duty or a hundred other reasons why the very next day does not suit. I am astonished some posters on here cannot see that this is not being entitled. A phone call on the Wed or Thursday could have sorted this out, resulting in an annoying but acceptable accommodation. The way this has been handled is not reasonable. It also means that your unuseable appointment slot on the rescheduled day is now also useless as it will be too late for them to write and offer it to someone else.

I do wonder what your letter actually says. If it simply says your appointment is on Wednesday at two o'clock with no reference to your existing appointment on Tuesdat at two o'clock, then yes it would seem there is a good chance it may be a clerical error. In that case, it is worth phoning or if it doesn't inconvenience you too much, turning up on Tuesday regardless. If it clearly says the Tuesday appointment is cancelled, then there is no point in turning up.

I cannot believe in 2017, the default position of many posters is that your career must be relegated to an insignificant level of priority just because you are pregnant or will have a baby. All this patronising "What if your baby gets sick at an inconvenience time?" nonsense. I work a high-powered job, while on maternity leave, I was fully available to take myself or my children to urgent appointments. I am now back at work, so my husband does it. He is on career break right now. And there are dozens of other caring arrangements that mean women like me can continue our careers while being mothers. If people can't distinguish between how flexible employers and careers can and should be for appointments scheduled two months in advance, versus an unforeseeable emergency, then they are very unimaginative indeed.

OP best wishes.

Sometimes low resources get used as a catch-all excuse for what is actually administrative incompetence. In addition, the idea that pregnant women's time is worth nothing is endemic in the system - it's a culture as well as a consequence of lack of resources. It doesn't happen in other parts of the NHS

Well said.

There's always such competative tolerance on hospital threads. "Aibu to expect my Dr to not turn up hungover waving a machete"

Yabvu blah blah blah he cane in feeling like crap just to see you my Dr had a gun I coped.

Blah blah blah entitled

Ungrateful

I had to rearrange my flights and missed my Dds wedding it's one of those things blah blah blah funding

Let's not pretend that actually if any of us pulled this stunt at work wed find ourselves in a diciplinary.

That rearranging at such shirt notice doesn't just mean the person with the appointment has to rearrange. It means everyone needed to cover also has to rearrange. And it's not entirely impossible that shock horror those people had the nerve to arrange something for their morning off. Like a hair dresser appointment they have to pay for of they cancel too late.

How many bosses would really he happy with arriving into work with a lost it note on the computer saying "change of plan I need tomorrow off" when the person knew days before.

It's unlikely to be sickness no one knows three days in advance they are going to be too I'll to work and miraculously ok the next day.

Last time i checked equipment didn't break to schedule either.

Someone messed up or over booked or mis read the calendar

It's not acceptable and we have all paid for this over the course of our working lives.

And if it cab wait a week and no one cares enough to ensure the person involved actually got the message then it's not an emergency.

In fact if it had been ask emergency and a person had to wait that long they have a right to be pissed off too.

Re: Heartburn. Do you take Gaviscon? I was drinking the stuff from the bottle during my two pregnancies

Gwenhwyfar - "I don't know about pregnancy care, but with the NHS in general you don't get to choose your appointments at times that are convenient for work. Most employers know how it works and you're entitled to time off for these appointments anyway."

But the OP did get to book an appointment for a date/time convenient to her and her work, because she was allowed to do so 8 weeks ago by the receptionist! I feel like either people aren't reading the OP (or subsequent posts) properly, or are just being awkward on purpose.

YANBU to be annoyed, however my suggestion would be what you already plan on doing - call this morning, see if it's just a mix up with them sending the wrong date on the letter. If it's been rearranged inconveniently, then go private. Good luck!

I had the same with my 12 week scan - mine wasn't a work issue but a childcare one (my hospital tells you not to bring children with you and I have a yound DS).
It was booked for a Monday afternoon and I received the letter Saturday morning rearranging to the Friday (which was my last working day before Christmas closure, very busy and I hadn't yet informed my employer - it would have been very hard for me to get the time off).

I called on the Monday morning and the staff had no idea what I was going on about and told me to turn up that afternoon. It was an error their end.

Btw I second FMC if you are in London.

Also, if I hadn't turned up on the Monday due to the second letter presumably that appointment would have been wasted?!?

I think the OP has been given a hard time here.