Further to previous posts on this subject, some news from Ireland:

Patients Together has expressed concern over the length of time pregnant women have to wait to have their first appointment with a doctor at Dublin’s maternity hospitals. In one instance, a woman who was three months pregnant was told she would have to wait until she was seven and a half months into her pregnancy to get a public appointment with an obstetrician.

I like this Anglo-Irishism in the report:

Patients Together’s Janette Byrne said the long waits are not acceptable and are a further indictment of how chronic the health service is.

When even the obstetrics department is chronic, it may be time for a re-think.

It puts into perspective what this young mom was told by the health service shortly before giving birth on the sidewalk outside Leicester’s Royal Infirmary:

’They said they were not sending an ambulance and told me I had had nine months to sort out a lift.’

Er, okay. But the British Columbia health service had “nine months to sort out” a bed, and couldn’t. And the Dublin health service has “nine months to sort out” a first appointment with your obstetrician, and is shaving it mighty fine.

(via Not Evil Just Wrong)