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Pregnancy

Blood boiling after hospital appt today - sorry long one

93 replies

babyhmummy01 · 12/07/2013 11:10

Ok, so I arrived in plenty of time for my 0830 apt, there was no one in the waiting room and yet they still managed to be 10 mins late, so I can forgive that, my DBIL is a surgeon so I know they can be called away or in meetings that run over etc, but am called through by a Maternity Assistant (I believe they are just HCA's?) who calls out "Mrs Babyh" it never even registered it was me as I am Ms not Mrs so took a few minutes. I politely corrected her that I am Ms not Mrs and was rudely told "Well we call everyone Mrs here" This has not been my past experience with the hospital as they have either called me by my first name or Ms Babyh so was not a great start. Then the Consultant barely had 2 words to say to me, anaesthetist wasn't available so had to wait for the on call one to be paged - sorry but YOU made the apt so why the heck wasn't he there for my 0830 apt.

He was ok but very strongly insisting and bordering on demanding I had no choice over labour other than an epidural which I REALLY don't want. I explained to him that unless absolutely medically necessary I did not want an epidural as the thought of being out of control, on a bed, unable to move terrifies the life out of me. He reluctantly agreed but due to my asthma and allergy to pain meds I can only have that or Entenox which I said was fine. He listened to my chest and said I could leave the hospital but never gave me my notes back.

I called in at the reception desk to ask how I got my notes back and a different Maternity Assistant to above said she would go and find them for me. Then out of the blue the rude assistant appears and barks at me that I can leave as the Doctor has finished with me and I don't need to be there. I tried to politely (through gritted teeth) tell her that I needed my notes to which I was told "well she has just told you she is getting them" - Queue my blood really starting to boil at this point.

The nice MA came back with my notes and muttered that as discussed with Consultant I was now under MW led care, I explained that nothing of that ilk had been discussed and that the as the anaesthetist was demanding epidural and possibly spinal for a c section if my asthma is still bad when I go into labour then I needed to be consultant led so off she trotted to confirm...am I wrong to be really annoyed and quite upset by this whole debacle?! I am considering writing to the hospital and complaining but not sure if I am taking it too muh to heart...please help

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raqueluchi · 13/07/2013 10:48

I have to agree with Bodicea, I really don´t see any need to correct someone who is doing their job on the Mrs/Ms issue. At my obs appointment every time they call me by my middle name, rather than my first name and I would never dream of correcting them. Saying that it makes someone wonder what else they get wrong on their records because of a minor mistake reading the name when they have so much other more important issues on the records to deal with is ridiculous, to say the least. Pulling someone up on that, however "politely" you did it, could easily come across as being a bit prickly, imo. But that´s purely because I personally see it as such a non-issue. So, as many others have said, the whole "rude attitude" complaint could have been avoided if you had just let it lie and not picked her up on it.

Re. the waiting - a day after being advised to have an epidural at 20 weeks, I had to wait almost 2 and a half hours to actually have the epidural, a wait which felt like eternity, but would never in a million years have dreamt of complaining about it. Obs wards have so many unexpected eventualities and to imagine that someone as important in childbirth such as an anaesthetist would be taken off emergency duties to attend to a walk-in appointment is crazy. This is the NHS we are talking about, yeah, sure we pay for it, but if you don´t want to do the waiting (and 10 mins....really such a problem??) then maybe the NHS is not for you.

However, the mistakes over your MWLC v. CLC I can understand you feeling grieved over. However, to be taken more seriously, I would let drop the other issues and concentrate on what really is important here, ie. your health and that of your baby. The odd person being slightly off-hand with you in the grand scheme of things will be all forgotten about once the baby is born.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and future care.