to think if hospital's could really benefit from a crèche facility

[wheresthelight]

i am having massive issues trying to schedule an appointment for a scan at my local hospital because they have a policy that if you turn up with kids and no additional adult to mind them they wont do the scan. now i totally understand this but the appointment lady keeos getting really shirty on the phone with me when i say i can't do a given day as i have no childcare. i am sahm currently, dp works nights and we have no famiky locally to help out. i need to arrange around his days off which do not follow a set pattern unfortunately. i can only imagine how hard single parents with no support manage!

surely hospitals should understand thia and would benefit from some form of crèche facility? i would happily pay a few quid to leave dd so i didnt have to worry about it and it would mean that things would progress a lot quicker.

i know funding isn't their for it through the nhs but it would be nice in an ideal world!

I'm getting too invested in this now. If you see anyone on dragon's den trying to get funding for hospital creches, which operate will in profit, it is me

The NHS has far more pressing problems than having to set up child care for patients.
Lots of people have difficulty with hospital appointments. I used to work in a hospital and we were not allowed to accept lack of childcare as a reason for refusing an appointment. The most common problem by far is people who's employers won't let them have time off.

Ps I agree that the OP and her DH could probably work around it in this situation but that's not really the point of the thread. Surely the point was whether a crèche facility would be useful in a hospital? Not a bashing of OP's situation and choices.

littlems can we have errrr... Mates rates?

As someone who had to drag toddler DS along to his sister's orthopaedic appointments where we were often sitting for hours (as they consistently run very late) I think this would have been a good idea. Especially when the consultant decided DD needed an x-ray and I had to take him into the x-ray room where he had to stand behind the glass screen with the radiographer as I had to hold DD on the x-ray table. The waiting room at this clinic also had signs up saying "no food and drink in this area" which was a pain when you were virtually prisoner for up to 4 hrs.
DD had loads of hospital appointments and DH worked M-F so it was not possible for him to take time off every time. Had no family nearby to help and there are only so many times you can ask friends.

Ooh, maybe. You might have to leave a review in return that guarantees that we are not in any way germy

I think it's a good idea in principal but wouldn't really work

Some ideas for you:

-You husband sleeps 8-12, then has child. As parents working in the day with x2 babies a year apart we would often start work at 7.30am having both been up half the night so only 3/4 hrs sleep. Then 12hr shifts. It's life. He even has the option of sleeping 10 hrs 8-5 the day before and day after if needed. Most parents don't get that option

• find a local childminder who isn't full. They might be open to just having your child on ad hoc place until a full time child takes it

• call nanny agencies,they will send out a temp nanny

• ask friends. In exchange for them having your child one afternoon, you have theirs the next afternoon

• pay a local teen to come to hospital with you and walk child around for an hour.

I don't think the OP has a creche problem so much as she has a problem with a DH that won't step up and act as a supportive husband and parent.

I did fix a similar problem via Facebook - in the sense that I put a shout-out for a teenage babysitter.

She's done the grand total of one session (blows me off for anything from essay crisis to wanting an early night) - so it's not ideal - but it was less cringy than asking face-to-face.

How urgent is the scan? Can your husband request the shift off in advance (whilst working a different one so not actually using leave)? Or arrange a swap with a colleague if the rota is already done? Or could a family member travel down for the day even if they aren't local? My sister is about 2 hours away from me but if she needed help for an important medical appointment i would make the trip no question (and take annual leave from work if necessary - its a loved ones health we are talking about!).

It would be a good idea in an ideal world to have a creche so you are not being unreasonable in your suggestion, though i don't think it should be subsidised by the government. But for your current situation ....well you need to come up with a solution or you wont get your scan which is obviously a worry.

unfortunately family isnt an option and he has requested the time off but been refused. i have arranged for his day off but it really annoys ne that the hospital staff have been really horrible about it

Getting shirty when you continually refuse given appointments is not 'being horrible'. I think Id be a bit annoyed after continually offering you options and you refusing them. They're trying to help you yet you aren't helping yourself.

What Artandco says. Frankly your DH can survive on less sleep for one day given he can get 10 hours' sleep the day before and after. If not then there are other options.

You can't realistically expect an appointment to be available at a time that happens to fit with your DH's shifts at late notice. I'm not surprised the hospital staff are being a bit shirty.

Yes of course it would be lovely to have a creche at every hospital. It would also be lovely to have one at every workplace, every GP surgery, every bank, every other place where we have to do errands which might not be child suitable. But it's not realistic.

Yes they exist at gyms but we pay to use gyms - even the council ones - so there is funding to cover and the gym may take the view that they will attract more people (and more entry fees) by having a creche. None of that applies to hospitals.

SolomanDaisy, I just saw your post! It is a fantastic idea, I'm glad it's being put into practice in some countries, at least. I think if their is a need for this sort of service in the Netherlands, then there certainly is one here! I would certainly have made use of it. As it was, I had to wait years to be able to commit to appointments.

*there, not their!

but you would pay to use the crèche.

The way that you pay your way in the coffee shop. No one is suggesting that the hospital coffee shop is a profligate waste of resources. It's a basic amenity - that presumably pays its way with high footfall of low spending customers - but even if it needs some subsidy, improves patient welfare and hence healthcare outcomes.

Maybe all those kids party buses could double up as mobile creches at different hospitals. So if you knew x hospital had a creche on (eg) Mondays and Wednesday afternoons that's when you'd ask for the appt.

And the kids aren't actually going inside the hospital.

When DH was in hospital, if I could have paid for a creche for DC it would have been much easier on us all.

Oh, I've no objection if the creche users pay enough to cover the costs of the creche.

In reality, I very much doubt that people would be willing to pay enough to cover the true costs of running a hospital creche. Think of the costs vs the income: you'd have to hire premises; hire staff; pay for utilities, insurance, creche kit. On the other hand you would have no security as to how many people would need the service and for how long, every day. Some days you might have no takers at all. Others you might have 30 kids. People would cancel a lot. So you'd have to charge a fortune to those who did use the service to cover all the costs. And people wouldn't pay that.

There is a drop off/ad hoc creche near me. it works, just about, but only because they charge a large hourly fee (and there is a membership fee so they are not just dependent on the ad hoc fees) and there are a large number of well off parents in the area who can afford to pay their fees. I don't see a hospital being able to replicate this.

Mobile creche is an interesting idea, but you'd have to find staff who were willing to work at different locations on different days (or deal with the hassle of multiple part time staff) and the trouble is that many hospital clinics only run on certain days anyway. So no good if your clinic is on a Tuesday but the creche runs at that hospital on a Thursday.

But I think people would pay a large hourly fee because the alternative usually equates to loss of earnings for a partner/ family member or reduced holiday entitlement or hiring a professional nanny for the maximum amount of time an appt. may take.

So long as the hospital didn't charge ground rent a private business could set up premises relatively easily/ cheaply. Staff for childcare don't command high wages. Perhaps the hospital could pay for the utilities. (After all, there must be a cost saving if people are seen promptly and not waiting for the planets align to get childcare while their condition worsens and becomes more costly?)

If the crèche predominantly served the hospital - it should be able to benefit from charitable status, donations of toys, peppercorn rent from the hospital etc.

My DH works for a multinational - and they pay a retainer to a local nursery for 10 'emergency' places (under 5s term time and under 8s in the holidays). Idea is that if our childcare breaks down - up to a certain number of days per year - DH can request to use these places, to avoid having to take short-notice annual leave. It's a big room with loads of toys and Thomas the Tank engine DVD playing on loop - they do not have to do all the EYFS that a regular nursery does - they just keep the DC happy until the parent is free to collect.

A hospital affiliated crèche could offer a similar service to hospital staff. I think there are plenty of stressed parents (patients and staff) around hospitals to make it a viable proposition.

littlems you might be right but I suspect many people would think like the OP and wait for an appointment where they can get free childcare ie when someone at home is available to look after the child - however long that may take.

I don't know about premises. Aren't hospital sites usually pretty crowded already with not a lot of spare space available? I know my local hospital has buildings and portocabins all over the place and any spare space is for parking (which I think they make a bit of money on).

Shouldi that's a very good point about hospital staff - their kids could provide the permanent "customers" of the creche so patients' kids would be extra. That makes it a lot more viable - though juggling staff ratios would be hard. It might only be possible to offer space to kids over a certain age.

I look forward to one of you setting these creches up

But the OP would definitely use the service, that was her AIBU!

I think, at the very least, you could trial it at a bigger hospital and see how the figures stack up. I don't think that would bankrupt the NHS.