Trying to get an appointment, may be up to 15 weeks and seen no one yet! (London)

[shae00]

A bit of context, I have really really irregular periods, and first day of the last one was on the 4th of December 2017, so I could be really far along. Unfortunately because of the irregular periods I did not know until symptoms came along and then did the test. According to the test (clear blue digital) i was 3+ weeks, which of course sent me into panic, and that was 5 weeks ago.

I have since seen the GP who was no use, got me to self refer to Guys St Thomas to be seen, which I did on the day of seeing the doctor. I sent the referral in 4 weeks ago, then called up a week and a bit ago to wonder what the H was going on and they said that there was problem with my NHS number but would register me straight away and still haven't heard anything since.

Also, when i called up last week, they told me to request a dating scan from my GP, which i tried but they tried to pawn it off on the hospital.

So now I am a bit stuck and don't know what to do. From my frantic googling, I have gathered that i should have had my booking in, first scan and Nuchal scans before 13 weeks and apart from the useless GP im still no further in the process than I was the day i found out I was pregnant.

Does anyone have any experience with London hospitals/midwives, I have no clue and I'm getting to the point where I want to leave my BF to move back to Scotland just because the system is easier for me there!

Hi. Gosh that must be frustrating,
I think I must be not too far from where you are - if Guys is where you are trying to get seen.
My GP is not organising any of my scans and most places near here are are self-referral.
You need to call again and make it clear that you cannot wait much longer and explain how far along you think you are ... use the maximum date possible.
If they don't offer to get it sorted asap then come back and post an update. You don't need to go to Scotland! I think if Guys don't respond then you need to call Kings and explain how you have been fobbed off and are now desperate. They are responsive and I have hope they would sort things out.

You should have booked in with a midwife and have had the dating scan by now. In fact, your second midwife appointment should be in a weeks time if you are 15 weeks! Either way, you need to know how far along you are and that everything is ok. I wouldn’t be leaving it a week between phone calls if I were you, you should really be pestering them every other day imo until you get an appointment. I self-referred to a midwife and was told if I didn’t receive an appointment letter within two weeks to call back.

I had to ring the local care commissioning body in the end. If you ring NHS England they can give you the number of your local contact. Good luck. X

Are there community midwives at you GP? Could you try asking the receptionist to be out through? Or call the hospital switch board and ask to be put through to the community midwives?

You need to self-refer to your local midwife I think. For us, this isn't at the hospital we are receiving our care under. Have you just googled OP area midwife referral? simple but give that a shot. Call them and call the hospital. Mine had the dates wrong from the GP and I was due my first scan at 16 weeks!! All sorted now.

In theory, you have already requested a scan from the GP when you were originally referred. Good luck!

At Guys and St Thomas you can self refer from their website. You don't need to involve or wait for your GP. Are you in their catchment area? If not, they might decline to take you.
If they have accepted your referral, phone the antenatal clinic today and ask to speak to the most senior midwife. Point out the delay to your care, that you've missed early screening.
At my unit, in another part of London, we would put you on a short notice list, so as soon as we had a cancellation, we would offer it to you. Usually in the same week.

Just seen, you did self refer. Still speak to a midwife, who can over rule admin staff in similar situations.

I would call the hospital back again to chase up the appointment but I would also call the GP back and insist they refer you for the scan; explain the delay at the hospital to them and that this is what you have been advised to do by the hospital.

You can self refer online to King's as well. They should see you pretty quickly.

Lots of excellent advice here. I would only add that if you can afford it you might consider a private dating scan which would at least give you some idea of how far along you are and might help with the urgency of your request for NHS care. Just a thought.

Thanks for all the advice. So I put on my best angry voice, and asked for the senior midwife and explained everything to so many people just to get through.

She seemed much nicer than some of the staff that seemed to care but not enough, and managed to get me in for a scan on Thursday! (while I'm glad its soon, but kinda miffed that it took this much to get an appointment out of them) She also said that an "appointment" will be booked in for me aswell and i should get a text about it soon. I'm assuming she means booking in appointment.

I have another question, the scan is listed as "fetal medicine scan" is that normal doctor lingo for the first scan you get?

I should say, this is my first ever pregnancy so i have no clue! I apologise for the stupid question. Thank you everyone for being lovely and helping out :D

great work OP!

I’m at St Thomas’ and didn’t get seen until
after 12 weeks despite going to the GP at 6. Very frustrating.

Yes, fetal medicine scan is the 12 week scan, the first for most people - at St Thomas’ you’ll have it in the fetal medicine unit, a different part of the building to the 20 week scans. The scan will help to date your pregnancy accurately.

Congrats OP! Maybe see you around the hospital!