Denied Antenatal Referral

[RiverThunder]

Hi all, just looking for some advice!

Just found out I’m pregnant last week and we’re just about 5 weeks now! So I thought I’d make the referral sooner rather than later.

We’re in Gloucestershire, right next to Chepstow (Wales), but our nearest maternity care is really in North Bristol. This is about 20 minutes away compared to Gloucester which is an hour. We live right on the borders of all 3.

When I went to do the referral, the NHS website suggested North Bristol & Southmead, and Gloucester was much much further down the list. The Badger Notes site for North Bristol is also shared with University Hospital Bristol, two different trusts which had two different contact numbers for bookings.

University Hospitals sent me a text very quickly saying they couldn’t accept me because I was out of their area, which was fine as we didn’t want to go there anyway, but does this mean my request has also been removed from North Bristol/Southmead as well? I’m going to ring them tomorrow to find out but wanted to see if anyone else had the same experience!

I also wanted to see if anyone had done their booking appointment at Gloucester but were able to choose Southmead as their hospital? It just doesn’t seem sensible to choose Gloucester when it’s so far away, despite it technically being our trust.

Sorry this was super long and thanks so much in advance!

You can change your hospital to anywhere in the country if thats your choice. You just have to get your booking appointment out of the way. The community midwife will ask your preferred hospital. The community midwife is usually at your GP surgery. When you go for your booking state where you would like all your antenatal care, they will write it down and refer you there for all your scans and what not.

Dont worry too much at the minute.

I live in south yorkshire and can choose between sheffield, chesterfield, barnsley or rotherham. But my community midwife will always be where i currently live at my GP surgery just all my scans will be at whatever maternal hospital I choose.

Thank you! I’ll wait for my booking appointment then, I presumed I was panicking over nothing but had visions of 2 hour round trips for each appointment 😆

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/mothers-death-spike-stillbirths-prompts-10168218.amp

id avoid Gloucester at all costs if I were you x

Thank you, yes, this was the main reason I wanted to avoid Gloucester, it’s very scary! Speaking to people in the same area as me, and they were all able to choose Southmead so I’ll definitely be pushing for that!