"Poor appt service, unhelpful staff at St Thomas' Hospital"

St Thomas's managed to "misplace" my GP referrral letter, which I discovered after waiting 2.5 weeks for 1st booking appointment.

I tried to chase this up & was passed from desk to desk (by phone). Finally, I spoke to a seemingly helpful person who sounded worried that, at 11 weeks, they had still not booked me in & managed to "find" the referral letter. She said she was worried that there were no appointments any time soon, but would try to find something & call me back.

6 hours went by - no return phone call. I went through the battle of trying to find someone who could help. 3 different antenatal/"booking" departments later, I was told that appointments had been made for me & the letter was in the post.

I managed to find out from the person on the phone when the appointments were: 1st booking appointment would be when I was 13 weeks+ & the scan would be at almost 14 weeks. Right up against the target thresholds, so no doubt all acceptable per hospital targets. The fact remains that if the referral had been competently processed, I would have been seen much sooner.

At no point was anyone apologetic or reassuring. This has been a very poor introduction to St Thomas. I can only hope that midwives & medical staff do a better impression of caring at all.