Timeline for first visit (both private and public)?

Thanks all for your concern, really appreciated!

For the benefit of posterity, this is what happened this morning at Prince of Wales Hospital (near Sha Tin).
Got off the bus, followed the crowd (no info/signs around apart from A&E) and got to an information point. We asked for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and they directed us to the "South Wing" (but you really have follow the signs for "Li Ka Shing Specialist Outpatient Clinic"), 2nd floor.
Got there at opening time (9am).
It's official: if you only have a bill under the husband's name, you need to also bring your original certificate of marriage. You also need to bring your ID card and your spouse's, as well as your GP's referral. Filled in a form, please wait for 1 hour(!) so that someone can work out the dates of your two appointments, print them, and staple them to some general info about said appointments.
We did not see a doctor or even a nurse today, it was purely bureaucracy to register with that hospital and get the two appointments.
We still don't know whether the actual patient needs to be there during all this. My guess is no, so long as you have her ID card. Knowing this would have saved my wife a lot of stress and discomfort.
Anyway, the two appointments are:
1. Down Syndrome Screening (nuchal translucency via ultrasounds + PAPP-A & hCG via blood sample), week 12. Still not sure if this is the same as the OSCAR that they do privately in the same place. I'll ask.
2. General Obstetrics, week 24(!)

We also had booked a visit on week 13 with our MCHC.
When we called our MCHC after going to our GP, they misled us because they advised us to call the hospital's voicemail and wait for a callback (have not heard back yet). Going to the hospital ASAP was the right thing to do - like Aquarian said it's not possible to register by phone anyway.

At the hospital they wrote down that they gave us info about morphology test and OSCAR, but they did not. I gather these are elective and need to be paid for via private appointments. We'll consider our options, the important thing is to have secured the appointments, and yes, it's confirmed that there is a quota for the Down Syndrome screening.

Official info on the above

The only thing I'm not sure about is whether or not to have an early ultrasound scan to nail down the conception+due dates, so that the NT scan can be more accurate. The hospital printouts recommend doing this only if her cycle is irregular or if the first day of the last period is uncertain, neither of which is true in our case, so we should be fine.
 
As for her nausea etc, I don't think it's too bad, she is eating a bit now. We'll see how it goes, thanks again for your suggestions.
 
Glad to hear you got it all sorted out. Though I am surprised that your first antenatal appointment isn't until after 20 weeks! Is this because you already made an appointment with the MCHC?
I had heard that PWH was really slow but an hour to make your appointments is crazy!! Took me 5 minutes at PMH! Good luck with the rest if your appointments!
 
Shatin is so busy because it serves most of the northern new territories....oh, and those coming down from the mainland...

ps> when i registered with tsan yuk (many years ago), it took my over an hour, too.
 
Yay that you got that sorted out. The Down's Screening that they do is the same as what is referred to as OSCAR. So you don't need to do that privately. The morphology scan, generally done at 20 weeks or so, is as far as I know (as of 2011) no longer being offered free (except maybe in special cases). Since even in the private sector, not every gynae can perform this, I'd advise you to try and make a booking now to save yourself the hassle later. (For eg, at Baptist, the doc I was seeing Dr Jimmy Mak, does not do the morphology scan so they arranged another doc at the hospital to do it for me and they also urged me to confirm my date quickly as these doctors are busy).
 
I can't remember if you mentioned how old your wife is, but I assume if she's 'high risk' for downs that means she's over 35? In which case she should get a free morphology scan. I did at UCH and I assume all the public hospitals follow the same guidelines. Maybe.

If she *is* over 35 I would ask about it when you go in at 12 weeks - assuming you can't face another trip down before that. The morphology scan is important - it's the one you absolutely should have.
 
You can also try DR. Lam Yung Hang,..hes in central....his speciality is his scans...when my 2nd doc told me my baby was 1:345 I went to him for 2nd opinion, we did a second blood test and it turned out 1:1000+ and he said that according to his scans things were OK. When asked why the difference in ratio he said something to the extent that blood tests are quick ways to find out, but not 100% reliable, scams are the best, but they need to be done on good machines. His machines are good...if you can't get a booking at li ka shing clinic...
 
OK, booked the morphology scan with Li Ka Shing Specialist Clinic, $2,550. I think it's a kind-of half-private service, their labs are at the hospital, and when I asked the admin to send me a confirmation of the appointment by email she refused :-)

I also checked the difference between private and public Down Syndrome screenings:
1. DVD with pictures etc – don't care
2. Performed by some Professor of the Ob/Gyn Dept of Chinese University of Hong Kong blah blah – don't care too much
3. Results ready 2 hour later, and they give you the results either way. Going public means that they call you only if you have problems – this does make me a bit nervous, also considering that we never got a call back from them after I left my details on voicemail on Monday
 
If there is a problem they will call you. After my gestational diabetes screening they called to say that I had it and then arranged appointments with a dietician and admission to the day ward for monitoring and so they could teach me how to check my blood.
 
Thanks. Although... in other countries clinical data belong to the patient, and I was told in HK, too.
So I'll try and ask to see our data anyway after the test, just for peace of mind. The admin over the phone told me that they won't show it to me, but I'm going to challenge that :-)
 
You do have a right to your data but you have to apply for access to the records. Tell them you'd like to apply... it's minimal cost for the test results, more for the doctors notes and about hKD600 per scan if you want scans/xrays. You can pick up th e records or have them mailed to your home. i chose the latter ( but i only wnated the blood test records... so just paid photocopy fees).

Not sure why you didnt get a callback from the voicemail... I have used that number for booking and got a callback. However, if there is anything amiss, I'm pretty certain they will call and keept trying till they reach you. Ive been called several times and for stuff that wasnt even super urgent.
 
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