A HAMPSHIRE mum is demanding an apology after claiming she was thrown out of a doctor’s waiting room because her daughter was crying.
Donna Galliott had taken her sick one-year-old daughter Lily for an emergency appointment at Winchester’s St Clements Surgery.
As doctors were running late, the pair had sat for 20 minutes past their allotted time in the waiting room.
But because her toddler was distressed and screaming in pain, Donna says a receptionist told her to take the sick child outside and wait there.
“I felt so humiliated, it was awful,” she said.
“Lily had been unwell with a temperature for a week. When I noticed blistering on the roof of her mouth I rang the surgery and was told to bring her straight in.
“We arrived just after 5pm for an appointment at 5.10pm, but were still waiting at 5.30pm. Lily wasn’t comfortable, she was screaming.
“Then we were thrown out of the waiting room – the receptionist said ‘you’re making too much noise’. I could feel myself welling up.”
Donna decided to have Lily seen elsewhere, and cancelled her appointment.
An out-of-hours consultation later that evening concluded the tot was suffering from a viral infection.
Donna, of Holly Meadows, Teg Down, who holds down two jobs as well as being a mum, rang St Clements Surgery practice manager Kathy Bracher to complain – but says she has not received an apology.
Fellow patient Julie Hicks said she saw the pair being ejected: “I couldn’t believe what was happening and really felt for them. There were only two other people in the waiting room, who didn’t seem bothered.
“Anyone with small kids understands they scream when they’re ill – it’s just the way it is. It was disgraceful and well out of order.”
Ms Bracher later told the Daily Echo that medical confidentiality meant that she was unable to comment.
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