Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think Dr's surgeries shouldn't ban buggies?

137 replies

AlbaDeTamble · 28/09/2011 11:13

Mine does, and I generally ignore and a blind eye is given, but yesterday unavoidably with both DCs with me (4yo and 8mo) with all their bags and baggage from the day, just picked up from childminder, I was told I couldn't come in with the buggy. The waiting room was not full. So it wasn't a space issue.
I said either we came in with the buggy or they cancel my appointment (did not feel up to carrying everything) so they relented, after much tutting, and I felt very scolded.
But it strikes me as a highly unreasonable rule? The HCP I saw quoted 'fire hazard' and 'it makes the carpets dirty' and 'elderly people may trip over the buggy'. I don't see any shops or crowded cafes banning buggies for any of those reasons, so why should a Dr's surgery?
But it appears to be common round here... I went to check out next nearest surgery this morning (with sleeping baby in buggy) and they had a big sign in the door saying 'Prams and Pushchairs must be left outside' so I got no further.
Is this really the norm everywhere? Is it really reasonable?

OP posts:
SardineQueen · 28/09/2011 16:32

Surgeries must be aware that this policy prevents some people from accessing the doctor for themselves and their children, I'm sure. Because it does.

ginnybag · 28/09/2011 16:33

The surgery I worked for didn't have this rule and we were on the second and third floors of the building, which was definitely NOT purpose built.

In fact, I and other staff used to end up baby-watching in the back of the reception area while mum was seen!

However, I can give you the reason why this has been brought in there now: because evacuation during a fire drill was a nightmare and we once failed so spectacularly that the fire brigade told us people would have died had it been the real deal.

All those buggies had come up in the lift, which couldn't be used in a fire. Suddenly, they all either had to bump down 26 stairs , either via the main stairs, or worse, the metal fire escape stairs outside, or take the baby/toddler etc OUT of the pram to be carried down.

Either took a ridiculously long time. HUGE numbers of parents refused to leave their prams, for many reasons, but mostly because 'it's just a drill and PFB's asleep and I'm not waking them!' (err, there are only two people who don't know this is real and you aren't one of them!) and the only alternative was to leave them in the refuge area, intended to shelter people who really couldn't leave i.e. those in wheelchairs etc, blocking that area for those who needed it and potentially leaving lots of small children to burn to death!!

So, now, no buggies.

They've moved since, but the new purpose built surgery is still on the 2nd floor because the building is in one of the new primary care centres, so still no buggies!!

Can't answer for ground floor surgeries but that was our reason - if you can't get it in alone, you can't get it out alone in a fire!

SardineQueen · 28/09/2011 16:36

Ours is a ground floor surgery.

The situation with yours does sound dangerous. Very kind of you and your colleagues to offer to hold babies when it was necessary though!

ginnybag · 28/09/2011 16:42

I suspect in a ground floor surgery, they're just being arsey Grin

Mind we didn't have carpet, either, and people complained every year that the nice, wipe clean, lino 'looked cold and unwelcoming'.

Lot more welcoming than the stains and the smell of three-week-old vomit, trust me! But as me mother puts it: tha's nowt as queer as folk!

SardineQueen · 28/09/2011 17:07

I think you're probably right!

Getting an appt is like getting blood out of a stone at the best of times, let alone when you're feeling fragile!

NestaFiesta · 28/09/2011 17:11

From what you've written ginnybag, it strikes me that a second floor is stupid place to have a Dr's surgery anyway. In a fire, prams or not, there would still be elderly and infirm people struggling to get down the stairs. Not a criticism of you of course, but just one of those daft things you see in life.

ll31 · 28/09/2011 17:13

sounds ridiculous rule

TakeThisOneHereForAStart · 28/09/2011 17:18

I changed surgeries partly because of this.

The surgery I was at was purpose built, with corridors wide enough for two prams or wheelchairs to pass each other with room to spare for someone to walk between them, the doors were all double doors and mostly automatic, the surgery rooms were big and there was plenty of space.

And yet they still said prams were a fire hazard and insisted you leave them in reception. They didn't have any signs to tell you this though, so the first time I found out was when I was already there with LO in his pram.

We were both due a check-up, DH was away, I didn't have any friends or family nearby to ask to come with me and I didn't know I wouldn't be allowed to take LO in to see the doctor in his pram.

I was really ill and struggling to carry LO about in the house, I was using his moses basket like a mini-pram because it had two bases (one rocked and one had wheels) and the corridor we had to walk down was very long.

The staff were not allowed to carry LO for me because of health and safety so I limped down the corridor holding him.

When we saw the doctor there was nowhere to put LO down. He was three weeks old. The staff couldn't hold him for me so I had to have my examination while holding him. Doctor said that my blood pressure was up and I seemed to be having trouble breathing. I pointed out it was due to having to carry LO so far when I was so ill and struggle to hold him while they took my blood pressure.

And I left in a worse state, they had to do a procedure on my arm, still balancing LO in my other arm, and leave with it bandaged up and covered in bruises.

LO was crying following his examination and the corridor had definitely grown twice in length since we'd arrived.

It was a nightmare and we never found a solution to it. Even carrying LO down the corridor in his car seat was hard work, but at least it meant there was somewhere to put him while the doctor treated me. It was annoying though because we lived a two minute walk away but from then on we always had to go in the car.

When I was injured a few months later I had to drive 45 minutes to my parents house, leave LO, drive 45 minutes back to have my appointment, then drive back to my parents to collect LO and then back home again. So a ten minute appointment twice a week meant that I had a three hour round trip to get childcare because I just couldn't carry LO through the surgery and had nowhere to put him safely down during the appointment.

The new surgery is of a similar design and build and the doctors actively encourage prams and pushchairs to be brought right into the consulting rooms. It's much better.

OpinionatedMum · 28/09/2011 17:27

YANBU They forget some people can't drive.

A sling isn't practical if it is pissing down with rain and you have a long way to walk.

If they are such a problem they need to provide somewhere to put a folded down buggy.

nailak · 28/09/2011 17:29

in the days when i was young, if a kid was sick the doctor would visit the kid at home, probably why older surgeries werent designed for those massive victorian prams that we had when we were young. definitely not smaller then todays 4x4's

NinkyNonker · 28/09/2011 17:35

It is things like this that make me glad I normally carry dd (hefty 13mo old) on my back in a wrap sling, so much easier negotiating brollies, bags, long walks, crowded waiting rooms etc.

That said, I have seen buggies at our surgery so it would appear they are allowed.

TattyDevine · 29/09/2011 16:44

I go to a spacious new ground floor surgery so we are able to bring in buggies. And many do.

I did till recently with my youngest as well, otherwise she'd be out the automatic door and in the car park, or rifling through the sharps disposal unit and if you stopped her then she'd have a meltdown. She's not 2 yet though. But she's suddenly easier so I might not bother next time. But if you have to get up on a bed to have your abdoment pushed and prodded or some such and you have your youngest child with you, its much easier if they are strapped in their chair with an iPhone book

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread