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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To move away pfb from the sick child?

54 replies

handbagCrab · 06/05/2012 16:06

Yesterday I took dh to an NHS walk in centre as he was in lots of pain. Me and Ds who's 5 months were waiting in waiting room. Various folk came and went. Then a women came with her granddaughter and asked her to wait outside whilst she talked to the receptionist. In a loud voice she explained she thought here gd had chicken pox and wanted some advice. The receptionist asked her to come in to see a nurse.

So this little girl who apparently ill enough that grandma didn't want her to come in to the walk in centre came in to the waiting room. Out of all the places to sit Grandma directed her to sit behind me and Ds. As her gd was kicking my chair and coughing all over me I asked grandma if she had said that she thought her gd had chicken pox. She confirmed this. So I said that I would move then as i was with a baby. Cue all the adults on the other side of the waiting room (no babies there) watching as I walked over to the bit of the waiting room designed for children, full of toys.

Then I took dh to hospital.

So was she unreasonable to put a sick child next to a baby when she didn't have to or was I bu to move? Is it pfb not to want your baby to be sat next to an ill child who possibly had chickenpox?

OP posts:
Sirzy · 06/05/2012 16:33

There is a big difference between wrapping them up in cotton wool and taking sensible precautions.

The nan obviously knew the risks by not wanting to bring her straight in, surely the staff should have found a room to keep her isolated in until she could be seen? Especially considering there could easily be immuno suppressed or pregnant people around

ChakotayBlue · 06/05/2012 16:34

McHappyPants that's what 24hr call-outs are for. Doctors will visit if you request it. If she was worried about her little girl then she should have called the out-of-hours number.
I'm not having a go at you, I'm just fed up. My issue, not yours Smile

Northernlurker · 06/05/2012 16:35

My dd2 was exposed to CP at 5 months when her sister had it. She caught it and barely bothered a bit tbh. If he comes out with it just keep a close eye on him and seek medical advice if you're worried. At which point I suspect you may be best able to empathise with the grandmother's position today.

TheUnMember · 06/05/2012 16:36

First of all, she shouldn't have been there with a child with chicken pox. What does she expect us to do?

Confirm that it is chicken pox and not some other disease with a rash, like meningitis?

Sirzy · 06/05/2012 16:36

Drs here certainly don't do home visits unless it is someone who is seriously ill. The system here if you need an out of hours dr is you phone and arrange what time you meet the gp at the Walk in centre

AmberLeaf · 06/05/2012 16:36

northenlurker. if a child becomes very ill due to complications of chicken pox then a walk in GP centre is not the place for them.

Northernlurker · 06/05/2012 16:37

Chakotay - are you working in the NHS in the UK? I do and I think there is
zero chance of a GP making a home visit to a child with chicken pox whose carer could bring them in to a clinic. Home visits are for the housebound. Not for those who have an illness which is endemic in the population.

ChakotayBlue · 06/05/2012 16:37

handbag he'd be fine at 5 months. He'd probably be ill and cry a lot, but so would most young kids.
Yes, to what Sirzy says about immune-suppressed or pregnant people.

Northernlurker · 06/05/2012 16:41

This is ridiculous - on the one hand we have somebody saying that CP does not need to be seen by a doctor. Which is not necessarily true. Then we have somebody else saying that a child ill with CP is too sick for a walk in centre. That isn't true either. It's a Sunday and the child needed to see a doctor for a problem which arose today. The walk in centre is the right place for that child.

Original poster
handbagCrab · 06/05/2012 16:46

Ah chakotay he's already like that with his cold and his teeth! I suppose it wouldn't make much difference to add chicken pox to the list.

To clarify, the walk in centres here are staffed by nurses, no doctors. They can take temps, pulses, blood pressure, put bandages on etc. They can't prescribe. If you need medical attention they refer you to a and e or out of hours GP. I guess grandma might not know that though.

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 06/05/2012 16:46

No a child with chicken pox is too infectious for a walk in centre [or normal GP surgery]

Chicken pox doesnt require medical attention, but if a child develops complications a GP alk in centre wouldnt be appropriate.

FullBeam · 06/05/2012 16:50

I think the grandmother was not unreasonable in seeking medical advice for suspected cp as it could have been something more serious causing the rash.

However, if you have to take a child with suspected cp out in public, then I think you should take reasonable precautions to stop them from infecting other people. So I think she should have chosen a seat away from other people and prevented her gd from coughing over you and your baby. Cp can be serious for some groups of people such as pregnant women who don't have immunity and people with a suppressed immune system.

So, yanbu to move away.

RobinSparkles · 06/05/2012 16:53

I didn't think you were supposed to go into a doctor's surgery with a child who had chicken pox. Confused There's a big sign at our local clinic up in reception saying, "DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILD IN IF THEY HAVE CHICKEN POX".

Northernlurker · 06/05/2012 16:55

Amber - chicken pox infection MAY require medical attention. I repeat - it is dangerous to assert that it does not. The NHS choices web page refers patients to their GP with a range of CP related enquiries. As today is the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend, an out of hours centre is the right place to start at least, if you need help.

TheUnMember · 06/05/2012 17:06

When I suspected my daughter had chicken pox I rang the GPs surgery and asked what to do. They told me to bring her down to have it confirmed. So I did ... and sat in a full busy waiting room for half an hour.

As Northernlurker says, the NHS website says to consult your gp if you suspect chickenpox.

AmberLeaf · 06/05/2012 17:08

MAY require medical attention, but on the while it does not.

Dragging an unwell child who really just needs calpol, fluids and TLC to the doctors is not really a good idea-just for the sake on confirming if its chicken pox. how hard is it?

WhereYouLeftIt · 06/05/2012 17:10

I'm surprised that the receptionist directed them to the waiting room at all. I phoned ahead to my GP wanting to have my spots checked (it was, indeed, chickenpox) and I was told to go straight to a particular room when I got there and NOT to wait in the waiting room, just in case it was CP as they did not wish me to spread the infection.

Sirzy · 06/05/2012 17:14

Amber how do you know that's what she was doing? Nobody knows what her concerns where

landofsoapandglory · 06/05/2012 17:15

When DS2 had Chicken Pox he got Pneumenitis(?sp) on top and needed to see the GP. We had to go to the surgery, they wouldn't come out. The receptionist turfed all the other children out of the play room and got us to wait in there.

WRT the OP, YANBU to move, but YABU to think that ill people won't becoming to a walk in centre!

PestoPenguin · 06/05/2012 17:18

YANBU

At our GPs (and our previous 2 GPs) the policy was that patients with suspected infectious diseases or undiagnosed suspicious rashes that told the receptionist this were not seated in the main waiting area. This is for the protection of other patients, and there are signs indicating you should tell the receptionist about these things for this precise reason. I thought this was standard Confused?

Surgeries and clinics are places where you find sick people, true. That includes immunocomprimised people who are highly vulnerable to diseases like CP.

I would have moved a long way away from her too, and I am not pfb (about to have DC4).

Mishy1234 · 06/05/2012 18:07

YANBU.

They should have directed her to a separate room if they suspected her GD had chicken pox. When DS1 had it, I phoned the surgery to ask if I should come in and when I did they took me to an empty office.

AmberLeaf · 06/05/2012 18:14

Amber how do you know that's what she was doing? Nobody knows what her concerns where

You're right I dont, but no one knows she wasnt doing that either and going by some posts I have read on MN I know that lots of people seem to need a doctor to confirm CP.

JADS · 06/05/2012 18:15

We took our son to the OOH docs with chicken pox as he had a dangerously high temp. He sat in the car until the doc saw him, then my husband whisked him straight in. We then went to A&E and were put in isolation. My son was admitted to hospital for 3 days and kept isolated.

When it comes to cp, I wouldn't take the risk, it can be a really horrible infection as well as a mild one - YANBU

I do think your OOH was U though

2shoes · 06/05/2012 18:16

yanbu
I took dd to the docs the other day and parked her round the corner away from every one, she only had an eye infection I didn't want her getting something else

Bletchley · 06/05/2012 18:17

When DS1 had chickenpox I rang NHS direct for advice. They told me the sores could be up to 5cm big. I asked if they meant mm. They said no, cm. I pretty much stopped listening at that point and ignored them. Still didn't take him to the GP, mind, just gave him Calpol and fluids.