"Poor patient respect"

My wife and I attended the ultrasound Department at the Worcester hospital for our 20 week baby scan. From the moment we entered the room we were made to feel uncomfortable.

The sonographer was instructing a junior member of staff so we just assumed they were distracted. However throughout the scan the senior sonographer was increasingly short with us and spoke to us in an abrupt manner.

We asked several questions as this is our first child; all replies were again short and abrupt and we left the appointment with questions remaining and feeling that we had been an inconvenience.

We were expecting to be given the option to find out the sex of the baby however at the end of the scan we were informed that we should have asked for this at the start of the scan and that there was no time to do it.

The sonographer also pointed out that there was a note on the wall explaining this (the room was dark when we entered, it was on the far wall and we were not made aware of this). We also required a follow up scan which we were told would be booked for us and a letter would come in the post detailing the time and date of the scan.

After two weeks we had not received a letter and when we enquired about the scan we were told that there was no record of an appointment.

This has now been booked.

We were polite and respectful throughout the appointment and expected the same from the sonographer - this was meant to be a magical experience to see our baby on screen, as well as a medical one. We strongly feel the department and sonographer fell far short of the top two core values of the hospital: Patients and Respect.