@#$%&**! Ft. Hood Women's Clinic

I did not want to lay this on DH so I am going to vent here.

Trying to get an appointment at the Women's Clinic is tougher than labor.

Well, I cannot really say that yet, but it is pretty darn tough.

First, you cannot use the normal appointment line. You have to call directly.

Then, they never pick up the phone. Not even an, "We are experiencing high call volume, your estimated waiting time is..." or a "Women's Clinic, please hold."

It just rings and rings and rings. The five or six times I've called (at different times of day), I've allowed it to ring about two minutes before giving up.

When you FINALLY get someone to answer, they can't give you an appointment for a month...and I said I could take ANY time on ANY day.

The first available appointment is almost a month away, in my 10th week. That appointment is to FILL OUT PAPERWORK...it is not even the first exam... no doctor, not even a nurse.

Lord only knows when my first examination will even happen...probably not until the 14th week (or more) since I am not high risk.

When I say this is unacceptable, they rattle off the number of women they treat. That they are busy is no excuse for the powers to have no procedures in place for making appointments at least!

I was polite, explaining that I am not questioning their individual job performance. I felt like screaming at them though, for their absolute lack of empathy.

I do not understand why the service has been so good at all the other clinics on post but they leave the women's clinic so backed up. They REALLY need to staff this place.

You would think pre-natal care would be a priority. Everything I read has emphasized its importance. The sad thing is that even as I worked up the chain to ask that they look into this, no one seems to care. They seem to think it obnoxious (and I swear, I really was polite) that a pregnant woman is interested in getting pre-natal care in a timely manner. What if I was not a big researcher? What if I did not have access to information? I could make some big mistakes before that appointment...isn't that the point of decent pre-natal care? To help women care for their babies early on in the pregnancy in order to PREVENT problems from happening???

GRRR....

Okay, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...do not want to stress out baby.