Please please help me!!!!

Great link that was put up and yes duty of care

Hi,
Why not ring the Social Services and get advice? No names at this stage.
Ring the local Police and get advice. No names at this stage either.

From that you can surely know what to do, in the right order, in the right way and at the right time.

Good Luck

Oh, and well done for caring!

That is a good point?? if she was there with the children and was not seen, then you could of reported her and not worry about patient care or confidentiality, but either way she was still drunk in charge of children and driving a car all against the law last time i heard.

Was the woman the patient that day or her children?

What an awful situation for you to be in! Agree with everyone re duty of care but try and put the incident behind you. You haven't heard any bad news about the family presumably so no harm came that time. Try not to dwell on it. If it happens again I'd suggest popping off to the ladies and a quick call to the police from your mobile!!!!! If I was in your shoes I'd definitely want to shop her but really couldn't afford to lose my job!! So that's what I'd do. It's a sad state of affairs that a dentist is more concerned with confidentiality than the lives of 3 children.

Hi TubbyTegs,

The Dentist is SERIOUSLY in the wrong. We have a duty of care to our patients and safeguarding children is a major hot topic in dentistry at the moment. Visit www.cpdt.org.uk/ which is the Child Protection in the Dental Team website for guidance on how to deal with the matter. Do stand up to your management team though, as DCP's, we are responsible for duty of care to our patients!

Good luck.

Exactly, if she had crashed and killed herself, her children or other road users it'd be on my mind constantly!!! The dentist said somethig along the lines of 'I think you'll find that that is a breach of patient confidentiality and if anything was the come of it that i had reported her, my disiplinary board would have no sympathy for me. My dad is a firefighter, he pulls bodies out of cars that have been drink driving, or passengers where the driver had been drinking. He see's things I couldnt bare to see, maybe i'm just more aware of the consequences?? I didn't sleep at all last night because of this!!

No definitely that's wrong,you should have stopped the parent from driving purely because she had children in the car and according to child protection policy we are responsible for every child that has attended our surgery. So the dentist by saying it is not his problem is wrong

I would have contacted the police.
The dentist should have spoken to her, he has a duty of care also.
Who's to know how many times she has been like that and got in a car. One of these days she won't be so lucky!!

OMG maybe you should report the Dentist for that comment. Yes you should of called the police you have a duty of care. We should all be following Safeguard!!!
If that mum crashed and hurt or killed anyone HOW would you feel knowing you allowed her to do this, i would of asked her if there was someone we could of called to collect her and the children, if not i would not of allowed her to get behind the wheel no matter the reaction

Hi everyone. I am in desperate need of your advice. We had a patient attend the surgery today with her 2 children and one of their school friends. She drove to the practice. Everything seemed normal until she spoke to me at reception. She was clearly very very drunk, slurring her words, eyes rolling the lot. She had her time in the surgery and even the dentist and the other nurse could smell the alcohol on her breath. She somehow managed to make her next appointments with me and left, again getting into her car and driving away. Now, correct me if i am wrong but i thought driving under the influence of alcohol wad illegal???? On asking the dentist if he thought i should report her to the police (not out of malice, purely for her own safety and that of the children and other road users?!??) he replied "no, its nothing to do with us" is this right??? I thought we had a duty of care towards our patients??? Help me!!!!