Booking in appt messed up- so annoyed!!!

[Moonchild23]

Feeling so annoyed and disappointed right now. Just sat waiting for my midwife appt for an hour and when chased up with reception, they called through to the midwife and turns out I’m not even on the system! Despite receiving my letter.
Midwife comes out to tell me that they got me mixed up with another woman of the same first name (seriously??) and cancelled my appointment instead of hers. So now I’ve got to go back later in the week and take more time off work.
Instead of apologising and giving me some reassurance, the midwife just said ‘hopefully it won’t happen again’ really lighthearted. Like wtf???
I’ve heard women talk about the ‘conveyor belt of care’ but this is an absolute joke. This hasn’t instilled me with much faith that I’m going to be looked after well tbh.
And yes I’m ranting, the pregnancy hormones have got me in full on rage mode 🤣

Can you find out how you can put in a formal complaint, as that sounds like they have very poor systems going on at the moment?

I don't know what your midwife service is like, but mine is massively understaffed, they have no admin team so do it all themselves, and it's in a weird building with no reception so you just turn up and hope for the best! Definitely doesn't excuse what's happened, but I think midwifery is quite an underfunded area. Maybe a complaint would help get better more robust systems in place.

@justincase87 @assassinatedbeauty it definitely sounds like there’s an issue on the admin side and the impression I got was that they were doing it themselves - midwife initially booked me in herself and reception didn’t take my name or anything.
I empathise with the NHS being under pressure but what’s annoyed me is how nonchalant the midwife was like ‘oops hopefully won’t happen again!’ Maybe I was expecting too much and my illusions have been shattered from the off lol

Hi OP

I feel for you I know how exciting it is when you have your first few appointments anyway! Although it’s common knowledge they are really busy it is a poor service that it was an error of a first name! I could maybe understand a surname but not a first name.

Don’t worry about taking more time off with work, have you told them your pregnant? If so, they can’t refuse you the appointment anyway. Annoying if you’ve used holidays or the doctors appointment excuse though for today. I’d maybe mention it in your next appointment and say you were disappointed, hopefully it was just a stupid system glitch. So no need to worry about the care you’ll recieve.

I too can vouch for the conveyor belt approach and only met my actual midwife at 24 weeks! (2 weeks ago!) However, they’ve been there for me and the midwifes at the hospital are fab (I’ve only called them once as I was worrying but they were great with me on phone) which gave me confidence in them when I’ll be delivering. I know it’s disapponting and unfair but try to remember this is most exciting time of your life! Plus if it’s any consolation, the booking appointment really is the most boring appointment going! It’s literally just paperwork, I was so excited thinking we’d be doing everything (it is my first) so was kind of gutted when I realised it was just a paper exercise BUT once that’s complete you know it’s the first scan shortly after!

Congrats OP and I feel you with them pregnancy hormones I’m either a raging loonatic or an emotional bubbling mess crying because I forgot to order dairy milk with the shopping - there’s no in between.

@justincase87 That set up sounds exactly like mine! There’s just this book to sign in and out of and you wait in this random corridoor - very strange set up.

How annoying for you to have to go back. Tbh in my experience that's the sort of standard of service you'll get throughout pregnancy.

The receptionists at my hospital are pretty terrible - they stand around chatting instead of dealing with the enormous queue of people waiting and I had one book me in with an anesthesiologist instead of a cardiologist! But everyone else is fantastic, the midwives, the consultants, the sonographers. I think it's common for the admin side to be awful but don't worry about the quality of your medical care based on that, it will probably be great.

Thanks @anyayat212, not worried about what work will say as planning to tell them this week but just because I know I’ll be busy after the break. Oh well work is very quickly not gonna be a priority anyway haha.

Thanks for all your responses, I’ve had an afternoon nap and calmed down haha. How am I gonna go back to work after napping every day over Xmas? Haha

I'm on baby number 5 and the booking in appointment has always been a time to chat through stuff, meet your midwife and give a history.
I went today for mine, was told I'd need to go to the hospital, went along to the hospital to be put in a room, given my notes and told to fill them out. I then had 10 mins with a midwife to go through anything I thought was important and sent home.
Over the years the care and treatment has 100% got worse. It really did feel like a conveyor belt of care and I just sat in the room wanting to cry.
Sorry you were treated badly too x

That sounds so frustrating! Do you have a one to one midwifery service in your area? They are all over the country. I switched to them after my first community midwife appointment. I've found them to be amazing and it was the best decision I think I've made.

If you have a homebirth team, switch to them. Continuity of care is amazing and you can always deliver in hospital if you want to.

@notanotherpawpatrol that sounds awful! So sorry you had that, it’s really not ok :(

@maimy88 erm I’m not sure? They’ve rearranged me for Friday now so I can ask when I go. Thanks :)

@johnlapsleyparlabane thanks for the tip, I want a home birth anyway so good to know that means it should improve somewhat! I’m looking forward to finding out how many midwives are on the home birth team as I’d love to get to know whoever’s going to be present at the birth. Know that’s not always possible or likely though unfortunately