WUMe - Women's Ultrasound Melbourne- Parkville

"Always behind the schedule/appointment time. We have to manage our work and other appointments because they always delays the appointment. So frustrated for waiting so long."

"They Wume parkville changed my appointment time without my confirmation. The original appointment time was 9:15 am we made the appointment 8 weeks ago. but they changed it to 12:30 pm at the last week. I got a text with different time, so in order to confirm the time of calling them yesterday morning to confirm the accuracy time, after double confirm, the receptionist replied my appointment is at 9:45 am. When I arrived, another receptionist said the appointment time was 12:30, and it's in another WUMe, in East Melbourne. I never called WUMe East Mel. There must be some problem with the work in the middle. Then the receptionist helped to jump in the queue to enter a gap, the waiting time was more than an hour and a half, and it caused my originally agreed time to see the OB to be postponed so that I waited for a longer time, and the originally planned one-day itinerary was completely canceled upset. They were using Philips EPIQ 7, which is not the advanced equipment, it’s versatile and for multiple applications. i worked in medicine devices area for a long time. this model was came to the market around 2013. I did my last ultrasound at city imaging, they are using GE Voluson E10, which was launched later than Philip EPIQ 7. And GE Voluson E10 is the most advanced for OB. Then comes the sonographer with short hair, she is quite young, we didn’t communicate much. All she said is nice baby, good, normal, very good, etc,. it was set my mind ease. But when we got the report at the front desk, the report gave a conclusion with a “difficult views of the heart: appears normal.” But the she didn’t mentioned anything about it when I was in the room or during the scan. I knew from all my friends’ experiences, the doctor will wait a while or ask to change position to see the baby’s organs. And also she didn’t mentioned whether it’s because the heart at 20 weeks is too small to see clearly or not. She didn’t say anything but it was just showed in the report. The report suggesting us to review the scan 6-8 weeks later to see the heart of baby. (I suppose to have the next scan 14 weeks later.) and the whole service is $420. Fair price but a little expensive for detailed scan, but I have to do it again in 6-8 weeks. (My OB suggested we review the scan in 4 weeks) . I don’t know why my OB in FPH still recommend them hope it’s not only the locations. But I refused and want to go to another place to do the review. Thanks to the innately superior location, they are located inside the FPH, they don’t have to worry about their customer base, so the service quality drops. Still thanks very much to the receptionist on duty. They put me through the gap. Even thought l still waited for a hour and a half. Hope WUMe Parkville can consider continue improvement, it will bring more good reputations. 3.1 Google review is quite low. Think about it why."

"Wow, what awfully rude and dismissive 'customer service'. Just called to book my 13 week scan (2+ weeks away) and got a spray about them being fully booked. "I'll stop you right there, we're fully booked , can't help you, your fingers better start walking!" - what does that even mean!? I was speechless. I called Epworth WUME, who were much more helpful. She advised they are all connected and even though they too were booked, she would find me a spot at another clinic (which she did so graciously). For a first time Mum, new to all of this and excited by this milestone scan, the attitude and tone I received from that woman at Parkville was not appreciated and left me deflated."

"I attended WUMe on 31st January 2022 after being referred by my GP for an urgent scan due to a suspected miscarriage. Due to COVID restrictions, my husband was not allowed to be present. Despite being informed of my situation and being visibly emotionally distressed, the staff were clinical in their responses and showed no compassion. I was taken to a dark room where I immediately became more distressed, crying and repeatedly asked to video call my husband for support. The person who performed the ultrasound, Dr Poonam Charan did not introduce herself and repeatedly stated I had to wait until after the scan to call my husband. She coldly demanded I remove my underwear and lay down. Without telling me what she was doing (and certainly without obtaining my consent to do so… verbal, implied or otherwise), she abruptly inserted a probe for a transvaginal ultrasound, which I was not expecting or prepared for. I was already emotionally distressed and felt this cold and insensitive approach only added to my psychological trauma. Dr Charan looked at images of my uterus and told me I needed to come back in 2 weeks to confirm if I had had a miscarriage. I could see something was wrong, but she refused to confirm it. After repeated demands for her to call my husband, she finally did at this point. Upon learning of his position as a medical doctor, Dr Charan’s attitude and demeanour changed completely to one that was professional and apologetic. At this point, she confirmed that I had had a miscarriage and the type of miscarriage. As soon as she got off the phone with my husband, she abruptly left the room. The reception staff who took payment for the scan also coldly ignored my visible crying and made insensitive comments. I left the practice feeling wholly devastated, grieving the loss of a much-wanted baby and utterly traumatised emotionally and psychologically from the unprofessional treatment by WUME staff. It has taken me eight months to muster the courage to write this review, and I only hope that other women do not endure a similar traumatic experience as I did at WUMe."

"I had an amniocentesis appointment at WUME Frances Perry and had a really positive experience. My appointment ran on time, efficient and without fuss. Dr Poonam Charan and her assistant nurse took really good care of me. She provided detailed explanation while performing ultrasound scan and took a lot of images/ videos so my husband could share the experience with me (given Covid, he was not allowed to be in the room). I also appreciated the gentle and kind nature which Dr Poonam Charan and her assistant nurse demonstrated during my procedure. They put me at ease and made sure I was okay before, during and after the procedure."