"8 week old baby hearing"

My wife and I have been concerned about our eight-week-old daughter's hearing recently, due to the fact she has not been reacting to noises as you would expect. So my wife completed an E-consult so that we could get our daughter's hearing checked. An appointment was given to us for 09:00am.

When we arrived at 08:40am, we were made aware by a colleague behind the reception that we were the first to be seen and told to make our way to the chestnut waiting room. We made sure we were early as the logistics of having a child are complicated at times and we didn’t want to be late. At 09:10AM, a doctor (we do not know their name), which later turned out to be the doctor our appointment was with, casually made their way down the corridor. At 09:15AM, 15 minutes after our scheduled appointment, we were called into their room where we were asked what our concerns were, without an apology for being late.

After asking for our daughter's hearing to be checked, which has been completed at Leighton Road surgery before, we were told that it could not be done and we would have to go back to where she originally had her hearing checked, which was at Stoke Mandeville hospital before she was discharged. We explained we were expecting to have our daughter's hearing checked at the appointment we had been given as we are really concerned for our first child, to which the doctor laughed and said it doesn’t work like that. Surprised by the doctor’s dismissive approach towards an eight-week-old child, we left, being no closer to a resolution to whether our daughter is having difficulty hearing.

As we left, we reflected on what had just happened and decided to approach the reception desk to make a complaint. We have no issues with the receptionists at Leighton Road surgery, but we were met with excuses as to why the doctor was late (which in this case was having to travel to work) and no valid reason as to why we had been referred to a doctor if there was nothing they can do about a child’s hearing.

As you can imagine, it is very difficult time keeping when you have an infant with the unpredictability and all the things you have to remember to bring, but we managed to be punctual. Myself and my wife also travel to work and feel that the doctor not managing their own time should not impact others. I also find it unacceptable that nothing could be done to support our current situation when it is causing a lot of stress. We were also appalled at the attitude and behaviour displayed by someone who is supposed to be a medical professional.