Saturday 11 May 2013

Unfortunately Not

I got home from work today to find an official looking letter waiting for me. It was addressed with a sticker with my details on in a courier style font which just screams NHS to me.

I suspected it was going to be an eye appointment about a freckle in my eye that needs to be looked at but it was actually about the IVF. For a moment I thought it was going to be telling us that we'd reached the top of the list and it was our turn, at first glance it looked like an appointment letter.

It wasn't.

It was basically saying that since we've been on the waiting list so long now (heading for thirteen months) we could have our treatment at another hospital under another trust. Sounds great, right?

Except the hospital they're suggesting we go to is in Edinburgh.




As you can see, that won't really be practical. It's enough of a trek getting to Glasgow as it is, let alone adding another hour onto the journey each way.

The letter also said that as it's been a while we might have changed our mind about wanting the IVF and so I have to reply to let them know we do want to stay on the waiting list, otherwise we'll be removed. I'm so paranoid about losing our spot that I immediately dug out an envelope to send our reply in. I'm not sure if they'll send us a confirmation back so I'll probably end up calling them too in a week or so's time just to be on the safe side.

It's such a shame that they couldn't've offered us a hospital on the west coast, I'd have jumped at the chance if there was something closer. But knowing how stressful and exhausting this is going to be we really can't justify going all the way to Edinburgh for that.

At least we've got our first appointment at the Nuffield in just over a week.

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you.

      The really annoying thing is that the letter was dated before the bank holiday weekend but obviously wasn't posted until after. So they had it for almost a week before they sent it to us, telling us if we didn't respond within 14 days of that date we would be removed from the waiting list. I can't imagine they would do that to anyone on the waiting list for knee surgery or eye treatment or something. It just seems wrong somehow.

      I did a bit of googling into the hospital this morning and also found that nowhere on their site does it say that their Assisted Conception lab is currently closed (and has been since last year) due to contamination from an unknown source. They're not expecting it to be open again until the end of this year and until then all patients are being sent to the same private hospital as us.

      I've just got no confidence in that hospital at all now. It's so lucky we've raised the funds to go private, I can't imagine how depressing it would be to deal with all this knowing we had no other option!

      Delete

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