Routine Midwife appointment nightmare (rant alert)

[DialMforMummy]

A bit of context. For DS1, routine midwife appointments were easy: ring GP surgery, make appointment. Done.
Now, it's changed. Midwife appointments now take place in Children's centre and to make the appointment you have to ring a lady on her mobile who might or might not working on that day. I left a message, she called back, I could not take the call, So I had to call back and so on... There is basically no one there at the centre during normal office hours sitting in front an appointment book.

It took four phone calls, two messages and several days to eventually make an appointment. Apparently, it's new governmental genius idea and although I don't mind going to a Children's centre for my appointment, I resent wasting time trying to make an appointment.
AIBU or is this bloody ridiculous?

Bloody ridiculous! It's just do hard to get through to anyone if you have a question or even to make an appointment. Until you're close to your due date it's very much a question of funding out info for yourself.

if it wasn't routine, you could have phoned the ward. i agree the system you describe is ludicrous, however, and not typical our children and family centre (which is easy-peasy, and much easier to get through to than the GP surgery ever was)

The whole thing seems to have gone to pot tbh. Despite dd2 being nearly 3 weeks old I'm still waiting for appts that I should have had while pg (weight management clinic, they were oh so adamant that I needed that. Anaesthetist appt. What happens if I want an epidural? Bloody lucky I didn't then isn't it?)

I was only signed off by the midwives on Saturday due to a cock up over appts. And then they keep quizzing me about what the problem was as I hadnt been signed off at the normal time!

I don't know if it's second timer apathy or if the system has actually gone to hell in a handcart.

My antenatal appointments with the midwife were booked by my midwife at the previous appointment in the surgery - so I didn't have a problem there. However, in the hospital and even aftercare has been a shambles tbh. I had to take my 10 day old baby to the childrens centre for his 10 day checkup with the midwife (with DD they came to the house!). This meant waiting for about an hour singing nursery rhymes in a room full of much older babies and children with runny noses until the midwife came.

At the hospital, I was given the wrong discharge sheet for my son - they gave me papers that belonged to another baby, and even upon asking my own midwife and 2 others, I still haven't been given my son's discharge sheet - so I have no record of how he was born.

I don't know if it's a national thing, but my hospital has started doing everything on computer, so throughout labour, my midwife was typing my labour notes into the system, rather than write them. This has apparantly caused alot of problems, as its taking a long time for everyone to get used to.

Yes, my (wonderful) MW during the birth was writing the notes as she was going along, then she had to go and type them up while we were still in the delivery suite. Totally not her fault but meant she was out of the room for ages.