Consultant appointments.

[tofuschnitzel]

I am pregnant with twins and I will be under consultant care for my pregnancy. I am also disabled. I had some appointments with a consultant booked in for next year. However, all of these appointments have now been changed to telephone only due to covid-19.

I'm a bit apprehensive about having such important appointments over the phone, and I will also need the consultant to agree to give me a cesarean due to my disability. I feel much more comfortable with face-to-face appointments, though I understand why they cannot take place right now.

Has anyone gone through this, or is going through a similar situation with their pregnancy? Any advice would be much appreciated. This is my first pregnancy and I am very anxious about it.

I am under consultant care at the moment. My appointments have been a mix of phone and in-person. I think you can request an in-person appointment unless the consultant is shielding. Try calling their secretary?

I've had 3 consultant appts on the phone so far. It's been fine, but I've found it's easier to make a note of any questions to ask them before the call as they felt a bit more rushed than F2F. Agree with PP- try to get F2F if possible, they can write in your notes aswell rather than just on the computer.

I was under consultant care earlier in the year. I had my first appointment in person in Feb just before things kicked off and the second appointment during the first lockdown. I had a phone call a few days before the second appointment to enquire as to how I was doing and to triage whether the appointment needed to be in person or if I was happy with a phone consultation. As it happened my reasons for being consultant led could be dealt with over the phone and we covered everything during the triage phone call.

I'm now post partum but have consultant care and I have had a mix of in person and telephone appointments. My dad has recently seen a specialist and again a mix - the first for him was in person to get the full history and what not but at the end of the appointment the consultant said now he has his details they can do further reviews on the phone.

It sounds like having at least one of your appointments in person would be a benefit to you. If that is what you want I would enquire to see if it is possible

I'm having twins - I had one consultant appointment over the phone at 16 weeks - everything else has been face to face at the twins clinic - you'll get scanned routinely at least once a month anyway so the phone calls are probably just checks in inbetween so wouldn't worry too much. Also I'm having a c section and it wasn't questioned at all - they just assumed it was a given with it being twins

Thank you for your replies, it is reassuring to hear how consultant care is running during covid-19! I will get in touch with them and see if I can arrange face to face appointments.