"Service not offered as expected"

My wife and I were booked in for a pregnancy ultrasound at Raigmore hospital. This was to be a 'reassurance scan' as we are pregnant through fertility treatment.

We arrived at the antenatal clinic and waited over an hour past our appointment time to be called by the consultant. We were then told that they don't offer reassurance scans anymore due to being understaffed. So after a 10 minute chat about my pregnancy we went home without the expected scan.

I totally understand that a service may no longer be offered if there aren't the staffing levels, however we should have been notified of this before travelling to the appointment. We travelled an hour and a half for the scan and my wife took the morning off work, unpaid, to attend. If we'd known the scans weren't offered anymore, we wouldn't have wasted 3 hours of our morning, plus the fuel cost and missed work.

Our community midwife has advised that the department had told them that these scans are to be discontinued due to staffing, however this was communicated after I was referred and so the appointment should have been honoured, or I should have at least been notified of the cancellation. It was not updated on BadgerApp.

Better communication is needed for changes or cancelled appointments for services no longer offered.