New GP - Bad sign?

[Trebizon]

I've recently moved house and am no longer within my old GP's postcode area, and they've told me I have to register with another practice.

I've just found out I'm pg and went to my nearest GP surgery last Thursday to register and have an intake appointment, but they told me the first appointment the receptionist told me the first appointment they can give me will be on the 26th of Feb as the nurse who does registration appointments is on leave.

I said I was hoping for a sooner appointment as I'm pregnant and the receptionist did go and check with someone else, but came back to say the 26th would be the soonest and they would do my referral at the same time.

Am I just being panicky, or is this an awfully long time to wait? It would mean I'm almost 8 weeks pg before I get to see a nurse, and I'm worried it will delay my referral and first scan further.

Also, surely it would have been sensible to arrange a very quick appointment just to advice me of folic acid etc - which I am taking anyway, but could easily not have been....And while I am delighted to be pg, what if I was unhappy about it and wanted to discuss my options with a doctor? Putting the appointment off to the 26th seems to presume a lot. It just seemed quite uncaring to me.

I don't want to go to my old gp, as I would rather not faff around between too many gps, hospitals etc. Just want to register with a new doctor and go from there.

Would you stick with this place, or look elsewhere?

It doesn't sound like an unreasonably long wait.

Once you are registered, waiting times for general doctors appointments won't be relevant as the midwives have their own system.

They will be able to get you an appointment for your 12 week scan no matter when the referral goes through.

Lots of people don't even see a midwife until after their scan, and if there was an actual need for an urgent appointment, I'm sure they would fit you in.

Things like frolic acid probably won't enter their mind, as most people rightly take them before they become pregnant, or know to start straight away. They are really only relevant to the first few weeks.

There is no harm in looking for another surgery if you want to, but you may well find its similar everywhere.

I guess they need to prioritise people who are actually ill.

I didn't see a GP until I was 8 weeks and had my booking in with a midwife at 11 weeks and was offered a scan at 12+4, so it was all fine. in that case it was my choice to hold off seeing a GP, as I have previously miscarried and couldn't face being "in the system" and getting appointment reminders and so on if it happened again, so I left it as late as I thought I reasonably could.

Generally though, if you feel that the surgery is too busy to give you appointments when you need them, then try to register somewhere else.

My GP doesn't see pregnant women until they're about 9 weeks anyway. Didn't delay anything with me at all. It's probably the standard in this surgery.

It sounds fine to me too, you generally don't need to see a GP and can book straight in with the midwife. Even the midwife won't want to see you til 8-10 weeks anyway. Maybe see if there is a number for the midwives and you can book with them directly?

Presumably you know that you need to be taking folic acid and not drinking/smoking/taking drugs? Paracetamol is safe during pregnancy but ibuprofen isn't.

It's normal to get your first appt (the booking-in) at around 8-10 weeks so I don't think they're being unreasonable. Obviously if you have any problems, call them straight away, but otherwise that's fine. They wouldn't arrange your 12-week scan any sooner anyway.

Sounds fine to me.

If you want to read up on the sort of stuff that they might discuss with you, look on the NHS choices pregnancy pages.

There's more there than they'd cover at a short appointment and you're free to read at your leisure

My GP prefers to see people around 7-8 weeks as well. A week is really not a long wait, although I appreciate that time moves incredibly slowly during the first few weeks of pregnancy!

I know it is frustrating but this is quite normal. When I saw my gp they didn't even do a pregnancy test which I gather is completely normal but disappointed me as I was looking forward to 'official' confirmation if you know what I mean!

Congratulations!

I didn't attend fertility clinic until 8+4 and was then referred to midwives, still got an appt for bang on 11 weeks for booking in and scan at 13+1 next week. To be honest it takes a lot longer than that to get a general(non-emergency) appointment at my surgery so you are quite lucky!

Thanks for your advice. Glad to know that this is normal. I suppose I am just used to getting appointments much quicker than that and worrying too much.

As it happens I've just had a lot of dark red bleeding after my nap, so I guess by the time the appointment comes round it'll be irrelevant anyway,

Sorry to hear that . I'd call either EPAC at your hospital, or your GP about that though as you may be able to get an early scan to see if everything looks ok.