hospital follow ups

A

Aquarian

Registered User
We've been having our check ups at the mchc, and also had one check up at UCH. The UCH check up was just a weight check, and then a few minutes with a doctor who asked me the usual questions, then listened to my sons chest and stomach. I asked the doctor why we needed to have check ups at both the MCHC and the hospital and she didn't seem to know - it seems it's just the way they do it.

We've got another UCH check up next week and I'm wondering whether I need to go. I saw a private ped 2 days ago because baby has thrush, so he was weighed and checked then.

It's going to be a long tedious wait at the hospital so I'm wondering if it's really necessary.

Does anyone know:

a) what happens at the hospital check ups? Is it always basic weight/chest/stomach checks or are the developmental checks done here too?

b) if I miss one check up, does that mean I'm dropped from the system or will they send me an appt for another check up in the future?
 
I'm surprised you have both hospital and MCH checkups. My daughter had checkups at UCH but that was a for a specific issue - her kidney was slightly dilated. Once that was resolved, there were no further UCH followups. Is there some specific issue (thrush maybe?) that he was referred to UCH for?

Because normally at the MCH - which is only for vaccinations and developmental checks, anything else would get referred to the the hospital - you wouldn't really see a doctor, just nurses.

When my daughter was going to UCH, I noticed that they would do the usual weight/height checks but I don't think they'd fill in all the detailed info that they do in the MCH checks. We did actually do both (and a private ped for vaccinations on top haha!) but that's because she needed ultrasounds at UCH.

If you don't want to go for a checkup, I suggest you call and cancel or reschedule. Like for the MCH, if I can't make it to the date they're giving me for the next scheduled check-up I ask them to just schedule the subsequent one because anyway I'm doing vaccinations privately. They're ok with that. They won't send you an appointment if you don't call and set it up, and obviously they prefer that you cancel instead of just skipping one and then calling later to reschedule.

For my son, I kind of dropped off their system for a year (not sure if I cancelled the last appointment or not, think I did) and then when my daughter was born decided I wanted both of them to do those checks (my private ped doesn't do it) so I went and made an appointment for my son after an interval of more than a year and they were fine with it.

I have also found that there is a surprising lack of coordination and possibly some political bad blood between the MCH and the hospitals.
 
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Hmm, how strange. I wasn't told why he needed to go, it was just one of many appts I was given when we left hospital. The thrush only appeared a couple of days ago, so it's not that - but he was born 3 weeks early via emergency c-section, so maybe they want to keep an eye on him?

Though the weird thing is, after we went the first time they told us to book a follow up. Which we did for next Thursday (on the paper it's labeled 'Infant < Age 1'). A few days after that first appt we got another appt slip through the post - for an appt in early April - with the appt slip labelled 'CDS - Paed SOPD UCH'. So I don't know what that's for. I think I might miss next Thursday but go along for the one in April and see what they say.
 
If you have a private pediatrician that you regularly visit for checkups, it's generally fine to skip the hospital followups.

We took our kids to the hospital followups initially and noticed they don't really do anything special. The only reason we continued to go a couple of times was because my kids are preemie twins and we needed to get iron and vitamin supplements from them. Once our private pediatrician advised us that the supplements were no longer necessary, we stopped going altogether.

We were so glad because every time we went, it was an unpleasant experience.
- The wait was always long (2 hours or more)
- Consultation was short (10 minutes or less)
- It's not always the same doctor so they're not familiar with your child.
- The doctor always seems ill-equipped to handle our queries. Most of the answers always seem to be "they'll grow out of it".
- The consultation just doesn't seem to add any value to my family. Seems the doctor is more concerned with asking the default questions, inputting the answers into the computer, and then moving on to the next patient.
 
thanks jayjay - that's how i felt too, as my son is fine it seemed more like data collection than a real check up. I think I'll stop going.
 
Aquarian said:
Hmm, how strange. I wasn't told why he needed to go, it was just one of many appts I was given when we left hospital. The thrush only appeared a couple of days ago, so it's not that - but he was born 3 weeks early via emergency c-section, so maybe they want to keep an eye on him?

Though the weird thing is, after we went the first time they told us to book a follow up. Which we did for next Thursday (on the paper it's labeled 'Infant < Age 1'). A few days after that first appt we got another appt slip through the post - for an appt in early April - with the appt slip labelled 'CDS - Paed SOPD UCH'. So I don't know what that's for. I think I might miss next Thursday but go along for the one in April and see what they say.
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Paed SOPD is the paediatric specialist outpatient clinic - so you will see a doctor there. This is standard for babies who were born preterm or with congenital issues. They basically follow up until the child is considered "stable". For some babies, it may just be a few months. For others, it may be a couple of years. It is a good way to get into other departments in the public hospital if necessary.

My daughter was born with dwarfism and so we so the paed sopd at QMH for over 2 years. It was more detailed than the MCHC (which basically does developmental check ups and immunisations) and I'm glad we went. The doctor who we often saw there was the head of her case in NICU and was kind of her "overseer" for all the other specialists that we had to see. He was able to refer us to immunology when we later found that she had a dairy allergy.

If you are seeing a private pediatrician, maybe it's not worth going. Also if you have good insurance that will cover any potential complications in the private hospitals, maybe don't bother. But if there is a chance that you will need further public medical care I would continue to go. If you don't think it's necessary to go so frequently, call in advance and reschedule. I've done that a few times when I felt that the visit wouldn't be worth it (if she was doing well and I had no questions, and it hadn't been that long since my last visit). It was bittersweet for me when we finally "graduated" from the clinic!!
 
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