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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To complain about this receptionist?

66 replies

BirdPerson · 16/01/2019 14:01

Went to my local NHS clinic this morning for an appointment - it’s a typical NHS outpatients building with different services in different rooms/floors.

Anyway, I was waiting with my 18 month old, we’d been there an hour already and though I’d gone equipped with snacks and books, she was started to get a little bored.

She noticed a childs activity table in the waiting area of an adjacent clinic, so I went in with her and sat down to have a play. Almost as soon as I did, the receptionist came out from behind the desk and asked me if I had an appointment. I said no, my daughter just wanted to have a little play. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘if you don’t have an appointment you’re not permitted to use our facilities.’

I didn’t quite understand/believe what she was saying, so I asked her if she was being serious. She told me she was and asked me to leave. I told her she was very petty and left, but I’ve been seething about it ever since and I want to put in a complaint to the Trust. AIBU?

OP posts:
SauvingnonBlanketyBlanc · 16/01/2019 14:03

She was being a jobsworth and petty but i wouldn't report to the trust for that imo

MrsGideon · 16/01/2019 14:06

I'm confused... you said at the beginning of your OP that you had an appointment but then told the receptionist you didn't have an appointment? Or have I got that wrong?

It sounds to me like she thought you had just come into the surgery with the express wish to play on the equipment and didn't need to see a doctor at all!

SushiMonster · 16/01/2019 14:07

But you were waiting to see a doctor? Why did you say you weren't?

Knittedfairies · 16/01/2019 14:09

But you did have an appointment?

MrWolfknowsthetime · 16/01/2019 14:10

You told her you didn't have an appointment Confused

They don't let random people bring their kids in off the street for a little play.

Bombardier25966 · 16/01/2019 14:10

You wait in the waiting area for your clinic. Not difficult to understand is it?

Takaras · 16/01/2019 14:11

OP said she had an appointment in the adjacent clinic

shitholiday2018 · 16/01/2019 14:12

Yes I think if you’d said ‘ I’m just waiting for an appointment next door but my daughter was getting antsy as there’s nothing to do in there’, you’d have got an entirely different response. With what you said, it looked like you were using the waiting room as a free entertainment place?

shitholiday2018 · 16/01/2019 14:12

No Takaras, she told us she had that appointment, she did not tell the receptionist that, according to her OP.

JayoftheRed · 16/01/2019 14:13

MrsGideon I think she was going to the walk in centre part of the surgery, but the play table was in the appointment only part of the surgery and the receptionist was being a jobsworth and refused to allow her DD to play. That's how I read it. I may be wrong.

I wouldn't complain specifically about the receptionist, but maybe more about the lack of play facilities in the walk in area. I was at our local walk in centre a month or so ago with two under 2, and they were bored out of their brains after half an hour and we were there for about 3.5 hours in the end. There was a play house, and I'd taken plenty of toys for them so they were ok for a bit, but they were still bored senseless by the time we were seen. I'd have been really unimpressed if there had been nothing at all for them to play with at all in that situation, when you just don't know how long you're going to be.

I would suggest that the centre's policy that children who don't have an appointment (or are with adults that don't) aren't allowed to play with the toys be looked at, and that common sense and discretion should be used by the receptionist - it wouldn't have made any difference if your DD had used the play table while you waited, and would have made what sounded like a long wait more bearable.

ChrisjenAvasarala · 16/01/2019 14:13

I really think she thought you didn’t have an appointment to see any doctor at all and had just turned up to let her have a play. Why didn’t you say you had an appointment in the the other room but they were running late and your daughter was starting to get very fed up?

Original poster
BirdPerson · 16/01/2019 14:14

Sorry, I should clarify. I had an appointment in a different clinic. The activity table was in one clinic (e.g blood tests) and my appointment was in another (e.g hearing clinic)

The clinics were adjacent to each other

I don’t imagine she thought that I’d come in off the street to let my children play in a waiting area.

OP posts:
WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue · 16/01/2019 14:15

YABU. You caused this problem by being unclear. You told her you didn’t have an appointment, so for all she knew you were just some random who’d wandered in off the street.

If you’d have been clear and said “yes, it’s just with X clinic” there wouldn’t have been an issue.

Original poster
BirdPerson · 16/01/2019 14:16

Maybe she did genuinely think I didn’t have an appointment at all - although it would be a strange assumption to make considering it’s a building dedicated entirely to outpatient clinics and has no other purpose. I’ll chalk it up to a misunderstanding and get on with my life

OP posts:
shitholiday2018 · 16/01/2019 14:16

And I can’t imagine that you’d have said you had no appointment if, indeed, you had, albeit in a different clinic? Of course you can’t complain, you weren’t clear and the worker was just doing her job. Bloody hell, NHS employees have a shit enough time without having complaints made against them by people who don’t actually answer the questoins they are asked correctly.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 16/01/2019 14:16

I don’t imagine she thought that I’d come in off the street to let my children play in a waiting area

It really does sound like that's what she thought. In which case, you can see her point surely? I think this was just a misunderstanding. I wouldn't complain about her.

ChrisjenAvasarala · 16/01/2019 14:16

Most nhs outpatients are set up like that, different waiting areas for dinnerent things. But I’ve never once been told to leave the area with the play equipment if it was the “wrong” area for my appointment. Really, you told her you didn’t have an appointment. She believed you and told you to leave.

shitholiday2018 · 16/01/2019 14:17

And I don’t work in the NHS but I do get a bloody good service in very straitened times.

MuddyMoose · 16/01/2019 14:17

When you told her you didn't have an appointment I presume she thought you'd just taken your kid in for a play for something to do. You should of explained you had an appointment in a different clinic but your child was getting a bit fed up waiting. Miscommunication. I'd let it go & there's really no need for a complaint when you didn't explain yourself clearly to the receptionist.

flumpybear · 16/01/2019 14:18

You should have explained better.

I work in a hospital (not employed by them though) and all sorts of people rock up taking drinks for patients, using facilities and we even had a spate of stolen alcohol cleaning dispenser contents - loads of them went in a few hours, along with people pissing in corridors, broken facilities and stolen items from offices etc (this was down to a load of local temporary travellers who were causing chaos in the community anyway) - so yes you probably don't look like the type to be involved with such things but I guess she's told to ask And move people on who may just be meandering ... don't take it to heart, hospitals have all sorts of strange occurrences most people don't know about

GalacticChickenShit · 16/01/2019 14:19

YABU. You caused this problem by being unclear. You told her you didn’t have an appointment, so for all she knew you were just some random who’d wandered in off the street.

If you’d have been clear and said “yes, it’s just with X clinic” there wouldn’t have been an issue.

^this

shitholiday2018 · 16/01/2019 14:19

Nice bit of racism there Flumpy. Always a welcome addition to any thread.

shitholiday2018 · 16/01/2019 14:20

God forbid someone who looks like a traveller make the same mistake.

erja · 16/01/2019 14:20

Yes YABU. If you'd have explained and she'd have had the same reaction I would've said neither were being particularly unreasonable - she could've been more sensitive but was probably just being a jobsworth.

User758172 · 16/01/2019 14:21

You weren’t there in that clinic for an appointment. You had no right to be in there and she probably misunderstood you anyway. Don’t complain about her, she’s just doing her job. Move on, be happy, it’s not a big deal.

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