I imagine public hospitals are under resourced, so that may be an issue.
I had an appt with an OB/Gyn today (private). It was originally on 1st Sept, but had to be moved, cos he was at a birth that went longer than expected. My attitude is I'd rather be with an OB/Gyn that will attend the birth, rather than leave a labouring woman. He was on time today.
I think it's the nature of OB's work - if woman goes into labour, then that's that. Maybe next time, call ahead to see if they are running on time. That's what I do now.
I have to agree with Tashybabe. In the end Ballarat Base Hospital while large is still a regional hospital and it is more than likely that there was only one Ob there (I happen to know this as one of my cousins is an Ob there) and I would much prefer to wait and have then deal with a woman who needed assistance than to say "opps - sorry - have to go - I have a patient waiting for a checkup" They would not have made you wait on purpose.
And I have a friend who has just had her private Ob move her appointment for the 5th time in two weeks because he has been at births every time. In the end she said "give me a call when he is back and I will be in 10 minutes after that" - and she waited 4 hours for the call. Unfortunately it is just the nature of the system - you can't know when bubs are going to turn up and you don't know who will need assistance.
I agree with Tash. Ring and see if they are on time. I usually do this.
And I make appointments early in the day. You can't avoid the Dr being called away to a birth, but I figure then there are less people waiting before me.
I went public and waiting times were mostly pretty reasonable (within 30 mins of my appointment time). There was one day, when we had to go to the doctor's clinic (most other appointments we saw a midwife) and we waited for 2 hours past our appointment time...they were running 2 hours behind schedule...by the time we saw the doctor DF was just about ready to kill someone! Other than that it was pretty good though, so I don't know if they had an emergency or just an unusually busy day.
My record was 4 hours and 25mins waiting for antenatal clinic! I would have given up and gone home but I was nearly a week overdue and desperate to get bub out so I sat there and waited (even though I knew DH would crack because I wasn't there to pick him up from work and he didn't have keys to get into the house).
I was told when I booked all my appts at 35 wks (I went through my GP until then) that they were so busy with pregnant women they were deliberately double-booking appts because antenatal clinic was only one day a week and there just weren't enough hours in the day to see all the women they needed to see. So generally if you were given a 1pm appt, you knew you would be twiddling your thumbs until around 3pm, then get a three-minute check (blood pressure, weight and fundal height) and then they'd boot you out so they could get the next appt underway.
That's why I stuck with my GP until she kicked me out. I don't believe women who are going public should even be at the hospital until 36 weeks unless it's a moderate- to high-risk pregnancy - if you go to your GP you get the exact same service, on time, and you can go bulk-billing (which I did with both kids) and it eases the burden on the hospitals when the area is experiencing a baby boom.
Just ETA: FWIW, the people I saw at the hospital for both my pregnancies were not Obs, just a doctor - you see an Ob once before you give birth if you're lucky, so I had no worries about staying with my GP, she was just as qualified and experienced as the random doctors I saw at the hospital
Last edited by Glamourcide; September 18th, 2009 at 07:43 AM.
I think its pretty common to have to wait for an OB at a public hospital. The midwife clinic tends to be much quicker cause they seem to have more MWs rostered on. I was spewing that when I did GP shared care for my pg with Phoebe that my hospital appts were with the OB. Stupid. I should've been seeing the MWs. I often had to wait 2 hours + for the OB, only to have them do exactly the same as the MW would have done.
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