"The waiting times for Antenatal Clinic..."

What could be improved

The waiting times for Antenatal Clinic are horrendous, i waited for my 9:30 appt for 3 hours. Although the midwife who i saw was kind and curteous and apologised, The consultant was very much different. I am severly needle phobic and had a massive panic attack when the midwife tried to do my bloods, they wandered out and the consultant came in. They were unfreindly, unsympathetic and very unprofessional. I felt guilty enough about not being able to have my bloods taken, when they came in there was no greeting but spent the next 5 minutes belittling me, giving me no support on the matter, made no attempt to make me feel calmer about the situation. They made me feel horrendous telling me all the stuff that could possibly be wrong or they couldnt spot, saying about needing my blood type incase things went horribly wrong or if i came in and needed an emergancy c-section and they wouldn't be able to do it.

They never asked me how my pregnancy had been going, how i was managing with my previous back problems (still no word from the pain clinic 7 months into my pregnancy), how i felt in myself ect. I understand many ladies are pregnant and there is not always time to sit have a cuppa and chat but the basics on my pregnancy would be nice.

After their rant at me, and i was back in floods of tears, they almost threw my notes at me, practically threw a box of, what i found out were, iron tablets they never explained anything about them to me and never told me what they were.

I actually dread going to hospital antenatal because of this treatment and feel panicky about giving birth at hope hospital if this is how i am treated in a clinic by a medical professional.