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?

not about money or working... (though this is your reason) I (sahp) would also not be able to rearrange a hopsital appointment at short notice due to childcare needing to be arranged weeks in advance.

"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. "

They changed her appointment so she obviously does NOT get to choose her appointment times. And why should she when nobody else does? I look forward to the time when I can tell my doctor I'll be there at 10am next Wednesday and she doesn't laugh at me!

Of course you can book obe boked multiple appointments.

The fact someone can't read a calender doesn't take that away.

Good luck OP..hope you get it sorted.

And booking means you pick a slot from ones they offer you. it doesn't mean turn up when you like which is what you seem to think.

Have you ever rearranged an appointment? They give you a choice of times and dates then too. Or why bother putting the contact details on the latter

I think (hope) that there was a mistake. However, I noticed when pregnant that they do expect you to be able to chop and change appointments as unlike for other conditions, your employer has to give you time off. They don't seem to worry about the inconvenience to you.

"They changed her appointment so she obviously does NOT get to choose her appointment times. And why should she when nobody else does? I look forward to the time when I can tell my doctor I'll be there at 10am next Wednesday and she doesn't laugh at me!"

Isn't that what happened when Choose and Book was introduced - you chose your own appointment time and date? Has that system been ditched now? I appreciate it may not have applied to maternity care anyway.

This happens with appointments. Ds has a lot of appointments and we have had appointments cancelled the day before and sometimes on the day itself. Or appointments moved 2 or 3 times. It's annoying but that is the way it is.

If we get sent an appointment that won't work we also get to change that. Sometimes with moaning on their part but they still do it. So it works both ways

YABVU

I understand the short notice is an annoyance. However, the most likely reason your appointment has been changed is that the sonographer or doctor who was going to do the scan is unavailable, either due to their own sickness or staff shortages meaning they are needed elsewhere. Or it could be an admin error, I suppose.

My advice would be to call them and ask them to double check your appointment to make sure it's not simply an admin error. If you turn up, more likely than not they won't squeeze you in as they simply won't have any rooms/scanners as they will be fully booked- unless there is a cancellation or someone fails to attend.

Or if they do, it will be at the end of the clinic which means someone working through their break in order that you don't have to rearrange your appointment. As someone who has had to do this frequently I would stress that I don't mind at all if it is urgent or really needs done due to clinical need- but I would probably refuse if it was just because you couldn't be bothered to rearrange. We are stretched to breaking point as it is, never mind adding to it because you've decided it's inconvenient to rearrange the appointment or juggle things with work.

Hope you get through to the hospital this morning, OP. You've had an absolute pasting from a lot of holier than thou types! I can not believe someone on a parenting site has berated you for looking forward to your scan. Every person I know has looked forward to their scans - even if they're a little anxious too.
If you phone up you might be able to sort something out. Sadly, as this and other threads prove, it is sometimes the person that shouts the loudest that get what they need.

For my 12 week scan the letter came through on the day I was supposed to have had it. Lo and behold I didn't attend. I am sure my lack of beaming abilities was a great source of inconvenience that day.

Well said Zoe. I hate the way society has such low expectations of the NHS and civil service/local
Authority. Incompetence is not acceptable and not everything is as a result of less funding.

Hope you've managed to find out what's going on this morning.

My hospital was very accommodating in simillar circumstances. Just because its the nhs it doesn't mean they won't try and help

Did the letter say that the appointment date had been changed. I normally get a "sorry your appointment had to be changed" type letter (even if I was the one who changed it!) as well as another letter with the new appointment date. I appreciate that it probably works differently for different clinics/hospitals though. Either way, I would check and if necessary rearrange your appointment to a different more convenient time.

Hi OP

Sorry this has happened and yes it's incredibly annoying and really hard to rearrange important meetings etc on such short notice.

I thought I'd try to explain the usual reason for this. There's a set amount of appointments each day in the hospital for obstetric scans as these tend to take significantly longer than a lot of other scans. These include the 12 week scan, the fetal anomaly scan (this is yours and should be done from 19 week to 20+6 as the window is quite small for seeing all of the anatomy they need to correctly) and then growth scans. Bank holidays really mess things up because then we have less slots over these few weeks and have no idea how many people are going to come in with issues with growth therefore needing unexpected growth scans and these generally need doing within a few days so we can make decisions about whether continuing with a pregnancy is safe or if a baby needs delivering early. This sometimes means routine scans have to be rearranged which is hugely inconvenient but with good reason. The reason you haven't been given more notice is that there is a short window for getting the best views of the long list of anatomy that needs checking in the anomaly scan and we try to do it as close to the start of the window as possible because sometimes babies aren't playing ball and getting into the right position and they need repeating.

I completely understand how frustrating rearranging work is on such a short notice and how it is sometimes impossible but it is not done through general sloppiness and not caring about the inconvenience, it's done to get the best outcomes for all.

Hope you get a chance to read the post from PrettyFly above, OP - it's spot on.

I know it can be frustrating, but please don't think the appointment change is because of poor organisation. That's the least likely reason.

I called the hospital this morning to confirm my appointment this afternoon and query the letter I had received.

They had oversubscribed to today's clinic and had to change my appointment to tomorrow. They were sorry it was short notice but it is not their policy to call patients. ( I don't think this is an efficient way to manage late changes to appointment FWIW. )

I confirmed I can't do tomorrow and asked what would be the usual way to rearrange the appointment. The receptionist said she couldn't book an appointment for me at this stage and would refer it to sister. She couldn't confirm whether someone could call me back or what would happen next, just that she would refer it to sister.

I'm really quite upset to be honest - there was no alternative offered from the proposed scan time tomorrow and I very much got the impression that I had now wasted an appointment. If I weren't in a position to go private I would feel very much in limbo right now.

To be honest I do think I've got a hard time from some posters on this thread so thank you to everyone who has offered helpful advice. I'm not being entitled in hoping for a bit more notice in moving an appointment? The NHS needs to be run as though it was a profitable business in order to minimise waste of resources to some extent.

I'm sorry frilly, I'd be incredibly upset. For now, get a private scan booked in. Then follow up with the sister/receptionist/midwife to chase - I expect that you'll need to do a lot of ringing around unfortunately.

To be fair, your op did read a bit 'I'm not going to see my baby' rather than 'I'm missing my anomaly scan, is there a timeframe for them to be done in'. But I had missed that they had rescheduled the appointment for the very next day.

From what I remember of seeing a consultant, it is quite common to oversubscribe clinics as they expect a certain number not to turn up. It might be that the mother has sadly miscarried, that (as you have now done) someone has had to reschedule, they just don't bother turning up. I had to wait 3 hours past my scheduled appointment with a consultant in my twin pregnancy as they didn't expect a higher number than expected to attend plus they were dealing with an emergency situation.

So gently, you and your baby's health does come first. It's not easy when you have a career which relies on you being present, but the next few months could see you having to call in sick, being sent for urgent appointments. No one knows. But a contingency in place would be wise, even if you ensure a colleague/manager has access to your work incase there is a project which cannot be put off.

Ywbu to have just turned up and claimed not to be seen the letter. But yanbu to be disappointed that there is a better system.

I know it can be frustrating, but please don't think the appointment change is because of poor organisation. That's the least likely reason

Erm clearly it was....

I can see why they might need to change appointments but it is poor that they don't phone patients if there is less than a week's notice and it is also poor that they are so unhelpful when it comes to rearranging the appointment. Yes, the babies health comes first but there should also be recognition of the fact that pregnant women do not want to piss off their workplaces.

Do yourself and future patients a favour and give PALS a ring. YAabsolutelyNBU and I say that as a previous nhs employee.
That amount of notice is crazy.

That's disgraceful. Have you thought about contacting the CEO's office. I think it warrants it. Or at least a written complaint so the people ho make the decisions have some feedback.