GP receptionist won't give me an appointment

[Givemepickles]

First time pregnant and phoned GP this morning to let them know. The receptionist asked no questions but told me to self refer to my local hospital. Says I can't have a GP appointment til the New Year because they're only taking important calls at the moment.

I've done the referral and says it'll be 10 working days til I hear.

By new year I'll be 8 weeks pregnant before speaking to GP. I'm concerned about the medication I take and also thought in general the GP would want to check if I was taking vitamins and eating the right food etc. Is it normal to not see the GP til after 8 weeks? Does it matter? All new to this and confused already.

It's normal to go straight to the midwives these days. I made this mistake first time.
If you're concerned about meds you're taking though I'd push to chat to the GP and tell the receptionist that's why.

I didn’t see aGP with any of mine until 17 weeks. Had my booking appointment with a midwife about 10 weeks again with self-referral.

If you have specific concerns about your medication I would search online for known issues and then leave a message for the GP with your concerns. They should get in touch, either the GP to discuss our receptionist to say no concerns.

That’s completely normal. They might chat to you if your medication can impact a pregnancy but they certainly won’t be talking to you about the right foods and vitamins, they’ll assume you’re perfectly capable of finding that info out for yourself- and the only really essential one at this point is folic acid.

Same thing happened with my GP, they aren’t interested and I just had to self refer.

I heard back from the hospital I referred myself too within a week with my 8 week booking appointment and also my 12 week scan.

I would keep taking your folic acid and vitamins.

I didn't see my GP at all during either pregnancy, self referred to midwives and saw them at about 10 weeks for booking in.

But if you're concerned about medication make an appt specifically for that - the receptionist may think you just want a booking in type appt which would typically be with a midwife.

Normal you don’t need to see a GP for being pregnant, straight to midwives. If you have a query about medication, ask the receptionist if you can have that looked at. It can be a phone appointment etc.
your diet etc you’ll get more information on the internet.

It’s normal. You don’t need to tell a GP. It’s not a medical issue. However, if you take medication, you could check with a pharmacist.

Ah that's reassuring. I'll wait for the midwives to be in touch then.

My trust you don’t see the GP at all. Our midwives are based at the surgery so you have to call there to register with ours but each trust do it differently some aren’t based at gp and some are self refer.

It’s also normal not to see or speak to a midwife before 8-10 weeks for your booking appointment. Only reason I ever saw anyone before that was multiple miscarriages so I was under epu for early scans

@Givemepickles you can always talk to the pharmacist re any med concerns to, and congratulations!

That’s also how is was 18 years ago.

GP have nothing to do with it. I had to book in with the community midwifery team who were based at my surgery and had a separate number which the gp reception gave me. They saw me at about 8 weeks for booking in.

It's normal not to see the gp and to self refer to midwives. Your booking appointment should be around 8 weeks but can sometimes be later. Your midwife will go through vitamins and food etc with you and there's plenty of info online about vitamins and food in early pregnancy, check out the nhs website. I'd suggest a multivitamin for pregnancy

If you're worried about medication you're on then perhaps try your gp surgery again and request a phone consultation. Failing that, if your surgery has a dispensary try them, or a local pharmacy, they can sometimes to medication reviews and this may help you get a gp appointment if necessary.

Congratulations on your pregnancy

I agree with others about checking with the pharmacist re medication.

Op the receptionist is following the normal procedure, once pregnant you go straight under the e care of the midwife team 😁 often you self refer there too xx

GPs have nothing to do with it? OK. So I assume they no longer get paid for your maternity care?

8 weeks is normal, but not if you need to know whether your current medication is safe to continue taking.

This is a question for your doctor more than your midwife. If they won’t give you an appointment at your doctors, could you call 111 and ask for a doctor to call you back through them?

Congratulations!

Completely normal not to see the GP but I would speak to the pharmacist about your current medication. That said if a medication is very harmful for pregnancy you're normal told up front when prescribed it.

Hi

Regarding medication, you need to get that checked as soon as you can because the first 12 weeks are the time when medications have the greatest concern. You can look on the BUMP website for your specific meds, but your GP should at least have a telephone call with you about this. The receptionist is not a clinician and may not understand this. I suspect a pharmacist will always say it's for the GP to advise on medication in pregnancy. Do you mind me asking what you are on?

Tbh you're better off discussing medications with your pharmacist.
Ime gps really aren't always that good at remembering which medications are ok for this, with that etc and it's understandable because they can't remember everything!

Posted too soon. If the pharmacist thinks there's something you need to talk to the go about they'll tell you.

OP can you get a list of your medications and pop into the pharmacy where you normally fill your prescriptions? Then see if you can have a quick chat with a pharmacist about them.

If the pharmacist then says you must talk to your GP, phone up your GP practice, give the name of the pharmacist who you talked to and say you urgently need a telephone appointment.

I should add I found the advice the booking midwife I saw gave me about one of the supplements I am on due to GPs advice - I was initially prescribed it - dangerous. Both the GP I saw and obstetrician I had both checked I had ignored her advice.

So don't rely on midwives if you want to discuss medications talk to a pharmacist and if they can't help you then talk to a doctor.

I know everyone is saying it's normal but when I was pregnant with both mine the last being 10 years ago you went to the GP they checked you over worked out your due date then referred you to the hospital .

I should add though I know they no longer do this it stopped not long after I had my last baby