"antenatal clinic"

Anything else?

We had a routine appointment to see a consultant with my wifes pregnancy.

Unfortunatly we ended up waiting 2 hours after the appointment to actually get seen.

The poor receptionists have no clue whats happening. they are clearly overworked and are not being communicated too by the clinical staff.

I cannot understand the delay, it was not explained and we were left waiting for the best part of 2 hours without daring to leave and get a drink in case we missed getting called.

This was made worse because we had our 10month old son with us, who was, quite understandably, very upset.

when we were called through we were give a perfunctarary apology by the nurse/midwife (I have no clue really, no badge/introduction/was not even wearing the unifom correctly so could have been someone off the street). after a coursory examination and history taking, we were, (once again) left for a very long time. I left the room to ask how long and was told the consultant was delayed with a patient with 'complications'. not long after the consultant came through for a (less than 5 minute) consultation.

clinically I have no issue with what was said/done however I am disgusted by the ridiculous wait and extremely poor communication.

both myself and my wife are healthcare professionals...

simply put, we should have been communicated with and we were not.

firstly when we arrived we should have been advised of a long delay.

then we should have been given regular updates. this did not happen.

if the consultant was delayed then why didnt the nurse/midwife/whatever come back through to inform us. (instead of stnding stairing at the wall as they were when I went out to ask)

This is poor clinical managment and leadership from the department.

delays in healthcare are to be expected, but it is not right or fair to patients to leave them waiting without any communication for hours on end like this.

I could also point out that the repeating advert on the waiting room TV informing us of the 'world class healthcare' we were waiting for was just ironic in the extreme.

You dont provide world class healthcare unless you can get the basics right.. or actually care about the patients in your waiting room.