Children in waiting rooms

[BigRedLondonBus]

Dd has some regular hospital appointments at the moment but I have no child care so it means taking all 4 children to the hospital with me. It’s abit of a nightmare what age would it be acceptable to leave children in the waiting room whilst we have the actual appointment?

I have made three comments regarding general resilience of children with only one comment in direct response to a comment of yours. I'm not sure why you think all three comments related to your children. Okay?

It's not unreasonable to say that some children are better being left on their own, be it in a public place or at home. I know of children who have been lost and have either stood there and cried or sought help from staff in a local shop.

Some children feel comfortable to walk home from school by themselves or with other children and are aware of their surroundings and how to get help if needed and other children don't.

GPatz

Okay. But it isn’t the point, really. The risks associated with leaving a 6 year old alone aren’t worth it. Just take them in with you. It’s not hard.

I don’t like sounding paranoid, but the risk is there. As a survivor of SA, I have a tendency to be paranoid, obviously, but complacency is dangerous, too. Not that anything will happen in the waiting room, but that someone will befriend your child and then be able to approach them at another time.

It happened to DSis and me at a hotel when we were 8 and 6. A man befriended us and then we no longer thought of him as a stranger. (We had been taught about ‘stranger danger’.)

We were already victims, so we were vulnerable, but the same thing could happen to other children as well. Children can be well behaved and clued up, but their judgement isn’t that of a teenager or young adult. That’s why they need to have adult supervision.

I’m not saying something like this is likely to happen, but sadly they do happen.

And although the risk is low, it’s not tiny. Say you’re Johnny Creep sitting in the waiting room. You see an unattended child. You start a conversation with them. You tell them you’re unwell. You ask them to get you a tissue from the toilet. You follow them in. It’s as easy as that. Horrible, but it happens.

Unaccompanied adults aren’t generally allowed in children’s hospitals.

This thread is exhausting. I bet some of the DC of PP on here will be glad when they turn 18 and finally break the grip of their insufferably controlling parent.

hercule your suggestion of leaving your DC outside the room is no different from leaving the DC 20 paces away in the designated waiting area. With the exception that they would be causing an obstruction in the corridor which would inhibit the staff from carrying out their duties.

If a child can be inappropriately touched/spoken to in the waiting area the same can happen outside your room. You might hear it and come out and confront that behaviour but you didn't stop that experience from happening.

So you can pretend your suggestion is better when actually it's not and is fact causing more a nuisance to the hospital staff.

Why on earth the assumption that the waiting area is only “20 paces away” from the consultation area? Absolutely not the case at the children’s outpatients at either of the large London hospitals I have to visit frequently with one of my dcs.

Duchess exactly, this is the waiting room at the Evelina:

www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjF07inhrziAhVsp1kKHaQhC4cQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.danieltweedie.com%2Fareas-of-interest&psig=AOvVaw3c3-SDVZstbAitIn42IeEX&ust=1559058067695850

The consultation rooms are miles away. No different to leaving your kids in a shopping mall.

I wouldn't do it, because as a HCP I know how annoying it is for the receptionist to have to keep an eye on the children/make sure they aren't messing about/haven't wandered off to find mum or find the toilet. Your DC may be fine, the majority aren't so the receptionist will feel duty-bound to watch them, despite having plenty of other stuff to do. We have a "no unattended children in the waiting room" policy, I imagine most trusts do.

And the PP who feels that "the hospital should provide a HCP to watch them" - where does this end? If we have a responsibility to facilitate non-urgent outpatient appointments, do we also have to provide a creche when you need surgery and have no child care? Perhaps they can sit quietly in the anaesthetic room on their ipads. it's only a few hours after all.

Bubblegumicecream

How odd, then, that so many hospital staff insist that it is children being left unaccompanied who present a nuisance. Oh well, they must have some secret logic.

It’s very unreasonable to expect HCPs/receptionists to keep an eye on your child. What if they get called away/answer the phone/generally decrease their vigilance for a moment and your child wanders off? Why on earth should they be responsible for that?

Sashkin Indeed. My DC has been an inpatient and an outpatient of the Evelina and I now they don't allow siblings of patients to be left unattended by a parent or guardian, unless it's in a play room with a trained play leader (and usually the inpatient child) on the ward with the parents nearby.

I find it extraordinary how a few people on this thread are not able to see outside of their own experience or wants. It's the 'I'm alright Jack' mentality. Yes 'one's' child may be fine to sit unattended for 10 minutes in one's hospital within sightline of the consultation room. This does not automatically mean though that other people's children will be, that this is even practical or advisable in the setup of other hospitals, or that other hospitals will even allow children to be left. And with many appointments, you cannot guarantee that they will 'only' be 10 minutes.

Leaving a 7 year old unattended puts an implicit onus on other adults, especially staff, to watch or deal with the child if there's an issue whether you ask them to or not. For me it's not so much about the risk to the child but more about having consideration for the staff, other patients and the wishes of the hospital.