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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to report this nursery to ofsted?

53 replies

persepolis123 · 05/10/2015 00:41

A few days ago my daughter was given medication at nursery which was intended for another child. Would it be unreasonable to report to ofsted and/or is this something the nursery will do themselves?

OP posts:
VimFuego101 · 05/10/2015 00:45

That's a massive screwup. I would report it yourself.

NanaNina · 05/10/2015 00:50

Did they tell you about it - what was it for? I doubt very much that the nursery will report themselves to OFSTED but I think it's reasonable or you to do so. How old is your child? Not that it matters but I suppose it could be more harmful if it was given to a baby.

diggerdigsdogs · 05/10/2015 00:53

I would report.

It's so beyond not on and the consequences could have been awful.

Hope dd is ok.

Mermaidhair · 05/10/2015 01:23

Definitely report! My gosh what a stuff up. Is your dd ok?

MiscellaneousAssortment · 05/10/2015 02:02

Thought it would be one of those over reaction thread, but actually, that is dangerous and processes need to be in place to stop that from EVER happening again!

BlinkAndMiss · 05/10/2015 02:41

I was about to advise that you should accept nurseries aren't always perfect places and that it can't always provide the standard of care that you'd provide - but not after reading!

Report them, that's disgusting and irresponsible. That's not a mistake, it's negligent and possibly life threatening. I assume that it was something harmless but what if it wasn't? What if there were side effects? An allergy? And what about this child the medication was intended for? So many consequences.

Report to ofsted and demand that someone takes responsibility, this is something that cannot happen again. YANBU.

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 05/10/2015 07:59

Have they given you details of the medicine?

Jeffreythegiraffe · 05/10/2015 08:29

What medicine was it? I would be taking this seriously. What if your child had been allergic to it or it had significant side effects. As a nurse if I made a drug error there would be an incident form, my manager would be involved etc. They need to look at why this happened.

x2boys · 05/10/2015 08:29

Yes report them when I was working as a nurse medication errors did happen on busy loud wards and I reported any errors I made myself but the difference being I would be doing a medication round for 20+ patients on many different medications the nursery I presume only has too give one or two children medication .

JugglingTheBalls · 05/10/2015 08:40

How did they deal with it afterwards?

What was the medication and dose? Paracetamol or something your child would never have? Did they seek medical advise and contact you immediately?

Its awful that this happened but I would consider all these things, and most importantly their reaction to what happened. Did they follow their medication policy?

If they did as much as possible to keep your child safe following the accident and your child had no adverse affects I would not report them.

If they didn't I would report in a heartbeat. Hope your dc is ok.

gamerchick · 05/10/2015 08:43

Depends on what it was and how they handled it. I'm assuming there are no allergies or you would have said.

Marcipex · 05/10/2015 08:48

Definitely report.
No question.

HSMMaCM · 05/10/2015 09:16

My first reaction is yes report, but it does depend on the circumstances. If you had provided calpol for your child and they used another child's calpol bottle by mistake and told you straight away, that is slightly different to administering another child's insulin injection for example.

You can also put a complaint in writing to the nursery and they should keep it on file.

MinecraftWonder · 05/10/2015 09:27

What HSM said. Mixing up calpol bottles for two dc both having it = an 'acceptable' level of fuck up which i'd speak to the nursery about.

Giving anti-b's to the wrong child, for instance - not acceptable.

Francoitalialan · 05/10/2015 09:30

I think I'd focus on the process that allowed this to happen, not the medicines given. It absolutely should not be able to happen.

Eva50 · 05/10/2015 09:42

For me it would depend on what else I planned on doing now. Are you leaving your daughter at the nursery or removing her? If you are removing her then I would write a letter to of complaint to the nursery, copying in OFSTED. If she is continuing to go to the nursery (in which case I would assume you are otherwise happy with it) then I would be more inclined to work with them to review their policies and staff training to ensure nothing like this can ever happen again.

GoblinLittleOwl · 05/10/2015 09:45

Oh you mothers! Do you never make a mistake when looking after your children?
Reporting everything to Ofsted smacks of playground squabbles and 'I'll tell the Head of you.'
See the Head of Nursery immediately and ask for a full account of what happened, why it happened, the procedure for safeguarding medicines, training given to staff, and what steps are being taken to prevent it ever happening again.
Then, and only then, if you are not satisfied, consider contacting Ofsted.

Pensfriends · 05/10/2015 09:52

Absolutely report. The same happened to my DS when he was at nursery. Thankfully he was fine but procedures were changed.

blaeberry · 05/10/2015 09:54

Goblin I never mix up which of my children I am giving medication to. Of course they should be reported to ofsted. There whole medication procedure needs to be properly checked by an independent person to make sure this sort of screw up can't happen again. Kids don't just have calpol and both the child receiving medication and the child missing their dose could be in serious trouble. Medication could be given for heart problems, epilepsy, childhood cancers, ADHD, etc which are much more serious medicines some of which require very close monitoring when the kids start taking them. Then of course there are allergies.

Anastasie · 05/10/2015 09:55

Yes, of course you need to report them to anyone and everyone concerned.

May I ask what the medication was?

vvviola · 05/10/2015 10:00

To be honest Goblin, I'd want both - a full discussion of what new processes were in place AND possibly reporting to Ofsted.

In my case, even if it was "just" giving penicillin to the wrong child, it could potentially be very very serious (both my DDs are allergic to penicillin, one highly allergic).

Medicines just aren't something that you mess around with.

Original poster
persepolis123 · 05/10/2015 10:02

It was another child's asthma medication. My daughter doesn't have asthma. She complained of stomach pains and sore throat that night and the following day. Nursery did not seek medical advice, all they did was give the name of the medication and left it to me. They let me know within half an hour of it happening but pickup had already happened and nothing was mentioned at that point. I don't rely on the nursery for childcare, there are numerous options available to me so I will see what their response is before I make a decision on dd returning.

OP posts:
TheWildRumpyPumpus · 05/10/2015 10:04

Even if it were 'just Calpol' - what if your child had just had a dose herself for teething half an hour before being dropped off at nursery? An extra dose of 'just Calpol' by accident would be an issue.

They need to review exactly what went wrong. Did they collect the wrong child at medication time? Or did they pick up and administer the wrong medication? How soon did they realise their mistake? Were you alerted immediately at this point?

Their answers to all these questions and how they planned to address them going forward would steer my decision about Ofsted.

Our old nursery had each child's medication in ziplock bags with huge labels with the child's name on it, so not just relying on the small pharmacy label. All medications administered by nursery manager, double checked by key worker.

vvviola · 05/10/2015 10:05

OP, was your daughter taking medication also?

If not, I'd be even more concerned. Bad enough to mix up medicine when two children are getting medication at the same time (and that is really bad), but to give a child who is not taking any medication some.... the mind boggles!

TheWildRumpyPumpus · 05/10/2015 10:09

X-post.

WHAT? So was your daughter actually due any medication at all? Or did they see someone else needed asthma meds and collected the wrong child?

I would be calling Ofsted in your situation.

At the very least -
They should know which children have which ailments.
They should have started looking into medical advice for administering the wrong medication as soon as they realised their mistake.