Doctors Surgery & Chicken Pox

[curiousgeorgie]

My DD is 21 months. Had a snotty nose for two ish days then woke up with about ten spots (on chest, behind ears and on face)

I called the GP at 8.30 and said I really need an appointment because I think my DD may have Chicken pox, but I was unsure once before so should check.

They told me to come in at 10.30.

I got there at 10.20 and went to reception, holding my clearly spotty DD and was told to go to the waiting room. (separate room)

While in there I kept DD on my lap, didn't let her go over to the children's corner or play with any surgery toys. At 11.10 I went to ask how much longer I would have to wait as she was really unhappy and it was getting difficult to keep her on my lap.

I was told I should be next and I should go back and wait.

At 11.40 a lady with a toddler in a buggy came in (same sort of age as DD) took one look at us and left the room.

The receptionist came marching in, and from the doorway in a very crowded room said very loudly pointing at me 'Are you here because you think your child has chicken pox??'

I said yes, and she raised her voice again and told me to get out. I apparently should be standing in the hallway. I stood up to leave and told her that she knew why I was there, I spoke to her on the phone and she saw me at reception twice, and she's already left me sitting there for over an hour so isn't it a little late for hysterics. (And, this was hugely embarrassing. Especially with super annoyed DD on the verge on hysterics herself by now.)

We continued to argue like this and I was called to the doctor by the screen so I just left.

As I walked past the woman who 'told on me' in the hall and she literally pulled her buggy back to the wall.

So, DD does have chicken pox. But whatever happened to politeness? Patient confidentiality?? Generally not being a dick??

AIBU to be pissed off about this???

The alternative to the waiting room was the hallway.

Bad taste - everyone knows chicken pox is highly contagious even if they don't know the other risks that alone should be enough to make someone ask about isolation.

Sirzy - and I'm not. I've let the people I've seen in the past week know she has it and am looking after her at home. But chicken pox in the eyes can be dangerous and so I'm debating taking her back. Not to try and infect people, but to do the responsible thing and make sure my daughter is okay. That is my number one concern.

I wouldn't use google to diagnose.

Chicken pox is only easy to spot if you've seen it! Yes if one child had it and another got the same thing, I'd feel more confident, but as a first timer I'd want to chat to a doctor and the receptionist would have no way of knowing whether I needed an appointment or phone call.

Maybe there should be more awareness of it in the community as well with leaflets etc. It's assumed to be common sense but not everyone knows all the ins and outs of various infectious diseases and their impact!

It's tough though, you can educate yourself, but trying to educate others can be difficult. We where visiting IL's when DS2 had it. I had to listen to MIL telling people all sorts of bullshit about how it could be caught, which was hard to correct as she was a Midwife don't you know so must be believed and she was on the phone telling people, so I ended up speaking loudly about 'that's not how DS2 caught it'. When I first said he had CP nobody believed me, it was rampant round here at the time, and google images helped. They're not just spots, they're little blisters!

I asked my health visitor to look at my spotty 2 year old DS, to avoid going to the surgery. She said I had to take him to the doctor. I asked the receptionist if I could sit apart from other people waiting. She said no. My son turned out to have rubella, and we'd been in the same waiting room as the ante-natal appointments!
(In fairness, rubella hadn't crossed my mind, because DS had had his first MMR, and I think the health visitor and receptionist had also assumed rubella wasn't an option.)

I just think being a parent is a learning experience. If I have a second child and they get it, I would recognise it. I don't really think there's spare money in the government budget to send out chicken pox leaflets to everyone with a child.

I don't run to the doctors over every single thing, at all, but illness accompanied but lethargy and rash always freaks me out a little bit because of the measles / meningitis / many possibilities.

Bottom line is, the receptionist was extremely unprofessional. I think I'm going to write a letter of complaint about her. There's no way she should be speaking to patients like that, and listening to some of you, she should have isolated my DD and me, not left us in a waiting room for over an hour.

As far as I know receptionists aren't mind readers YOU should have asked about isolation, just because she had spoken to you on the phone doesn't mean she remembered why you were there she had probably made appoinments for 50 or more people that day.

Sirzy - it's up to them to tell me that. How would I know when I had previously been told to go about my normal life??

You didn't know chicken pox is highly contagious? Seriously?

Whoever told you to go about life as normal is an idiot and putting people's lives at risk.

I think curious is getting a very unfair and hard time here. And I have had a child who has been immuno suppressed. I have also taken my DS to a GP and a hospital with CP, on both ocassions at the request of the GP/hospital.

The OP spoke to the recepitonist. The receptionist knew what the concern was and told the OP to come in. She did. She did what was asked. She waited, where she was asked. That is the recepitonists job, and the recepitonist cannot assume that all patients know all risks to them and their children and of spreading disease.

The receptionist was very rude and unprofessional. The OP probably should have been isolated, but not all surgeries work like that. When I went into the Paed outpatient department at my local hosptial with my son for an ashtma review when he had CP the doctors told me to report to reception when I phoned to check. The same busy receiption where lots of imunosupressed people go. I followed my instict and the medical advice. But I checked. I then chose to rely on that advice. Just as the OP did. Give her a break

Sigh.

Of COURSE I know it's contagious. But I am not a doctors receptionist. I told them that I thought DD had chicken pox.

They told me to sit in the waiting room.

It is due to the fact that I know it is contagious that I kept her on my lap squirming for over an hour and didn't let her go into the children's area and play with toys.

I followed the instructions given to me.

Thanks Everyonehasaprice.

Common sense!! ;)

An extra leaflet in your antenatal pack won't cost a huge amount and if this is such a big issue will help a lot of people. Even just going on the number of MN chicken pox threads.

I'm also paranoid about rashes and meningitis.

For what it it's worth curious, the receptionist could have told you to ask about isolation when you mentioned possible chicken pox on the phone. That would have easily avoided the whole thing.

Well... She'll have another opportunity.

This one in her eye looks so bad I'm going to have to go back.

Whoever told you to go about life as normal is an idiot and putting people's lives at risk.

Please don't go about your normal life.

RING the GP,don't go back.

It doesn't surprise me to be honest

I once took ds1 to the doctors with a rash as I was unsure what it was. He sent as straight to the hospital with suspected meningitus (and letter) and they left us in the waiting room for 5 hours

Take your dd back, I'd be worried about a chicken pox spot in the eye.

You should have let the receptionist know when you arrived that you were there because of CP, but the receptionist was extremely rude and unprofessional, and deserves to have a complaint made against her. The surgery is unreasonable to expect anyone to wait in a hallway with a sick child for an hour. If they don't provide an isolated waiting room then they can't get snotty when someone uses the only waiting room they have available.

OP, I don't think YABU at all and you are getting a battering on here.

You phoned the surgery, they TOLD you to come in. They didn't say it's probably CP, stay at home. Personally I wouldn't have bothered seeing a doctor with CP either but they told you to come in. You told the receptionist of your arrival, she told you to sit in the waiting room. She knew of the suspected CP but didn't direct you to a different room.

And she shouldn't have shouted at you from across the room. Very unprofessional and embarrasing for you. It's the receptionist who's at fault here not the OP.

I would definitely get the eye seen to. I'd phone up and ask what would be the best course of action and see what they suggest. Maybe they might be able to prescribe something without seeing her.

Dancer - do you really think a receptionist remembers why everyone is there? The OP should have mentioned it when she arrived and asked where to wait.

I've called them. I can either have an emergency appointment at 4, or wait till a call back at close of surgery. (7 I think).

I said that she had chicken pox of course, so should I still come in? She said, if you think you need to see the doctor, then yes.

Sirzy, are you by any chance a doctors receptionist?

because you are quite snippy and clearly don't listen