"Maternity care and booking appointments"

I am incredibly disappointed in the Royal London. They have given us nightmare service and I am currently doing everything in my power to refer to a different hospital. I have been waiting for an appointment for a seven-week scan for over a month now (I am now past seven weeks). My GP has sent three referrals. I spoke to the Royal London this morning and they told me their external email and fax systems have been down for weeks and they have not received my referrals. They refused to book me an appointment over the phone without the referral. My GP has told me that I have a high-risk pregnancy and I am on medication that apparently requires monitoring by a specialist team. I have not heard a peep from the Royal London about any of this.

Not only this, but last year when I had a miscarriage they refused to see me, telling me I had to have three miscarriages before they would do blood tests (that I had already had done) to see if there was anything wrong (which we already knew there was, because we had already had the blood tests). It then took six months after my miscarriage to get an appointment to see the specialist. Twice I went to what I thought was my appointment (I even had an appointment letter) only to be told that my name was not in the system and the specialist apparently had forgotten to book me in.

In summary, I have never had such bad care. They make you feel like a criminal for trying to get help. I am incredibly stressed and desperate to see someone and they make you feel like you have no right to call them up. There are so many rings you have to jump through to prove that you need to someone and they treat you with immediate suspicion. Not once did I feel like they were on my side, or wanted to help in any way. It was as if I was an inconvenient hassle taking up their time.

What ever you do, do not go to the Royal London for any kind of maternity or EGU care.