Hello,
I strongly feel that Bounty reps have no place in hospital post natal wards. I have written to West Mid NHS trust to express my concerns, but they seem quite keen to keep their contract with Bounty.
They state that they have had no complaints from new parents re the Bounty lady and are using this to justify their continued presence. I have made the point that making a complaint is not often high on the agenda of new parents, but have not received a response.
They do seem willing to carry out some sort of survey before end of the current Bounty contract but this is not until 2015.
In light of this I thought I would ask here about people's experiences with the Bounty lady at West Mid hospital. In the Mumsnet survey 82% of people think the Bounty lady should not be present under any circumstances. So even if like me your experience was fairly neutral but you do not think the Bounty lady should be present it, would be great to hear from you.
At the very least I think new parents should be given the option of opting out of a Bounty lady visit during their ante-natal appt. I think the trust are more likely to be interested in this idea if we can give an indication of wether the results of the Mumsnet survey are reflected locally.
I'd also be interested to hear from others who might like to join forces and campaign on this, I've only seen one bit on it in the local papers.
Here's more on the mumsnet campaign and survey:
www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/bounty-reps-campaign-index
Thanks