Beware if you're ill on holiday at butlins...

kippers

We have just returned back from a very traumatic experience at Butlins...

We arrive at Minehead on Friday. On Sunday my dh stayed in bed all day with stomach pains and generally unwell but seemed alot better the next day. On Monday my dd started being sick and then developed diarrhoea but started to feel better yeaterday morning. I had planned to keep her in until she was eating again and properly better and went to get a dvd for her to watch (as we were staying in thegold accommodation and you get them free with a deposit). As the lady was signing out the dvd i just made small talk saying the dvd was for my dd as she was poorly and within seconds she had produced a form saying she must report any illness....next the site manager was there telling me we had to go home!

We argued for ages saying it could be something she had eaten, she was nearly better, i had kept cleaning bathroom with dettox, bleach every time she was sick and went toilet so the rest of us didnt catch it and we had kept her in. They wouldn't budge. My dh tried to compromise saying if any of the others memebers of the family developed any symptoms them we would go straight home but they would not accept this, they only gave us two options:

They told us we could stay in the appartment and be checked every two hours to make sure the rest of us didn't catch it but would not be allowed out until at least Thurs and if we did attempt to leave the apartment we would be escorted off the camp by security OR we could leave straight away....which obviously we did, feeling forced to as we were leaving on friday anyway.

We felt like leppers! We think they completely over reacted and made us feel terrible in the process. At no stage were we offered medical advice or a doctor to exam our dd..We were just told to take our dd to the docs this morning with a stool sample. They credited our butlins account with £195 for the 3 nights we would be missing and gave us 2 sick bags and 4 water bottles for the journey home...what an insult!..and as my dd pointed out : £195 won't even pay for a short break at butlins.

Looking at the butlins T&C's it does say you can be sent home if you have a 'contagious disease'.

We have just taken our DD to the docs who said as she is better now it would be no good taking a stool sample as butlins suggested but she also said Butlins have covered themselves in their T&C's as even a cold can be classed as a 'contagious disease'.

We don't seem to have a leg to stand on re being sent home but we will be complaining at the highest level about the way we have been treated and made to feel like leppers. I understand they had a norovirus outbreak at a different camp last week but that is no excuse to treat my family like this...they could have least given us the option to stay another night for my dd to feel properly better before traveling as we promised not to go out until she was better.

SO LET THIS BE A WARNING: IF YOU ARE POORLY AT BUTLINS FOR GOODNESS SAKE DON'T MENTION IT TO ANY OF THE STAFF OR YOU WILL GET THROWN OFF THE CAMP!.....just let you child get over it sensibly as you would normally.

ceebeeby

totally rubbish and bad luck for you but sure i read there was a norovirus epedemic recently so from there point of view (and mine) this was ok as they have effectively contained the spread of (unknown / potential) disease - but not nice for spoilt hols.

can you contact them n say instead of 195 could you get a short break instead even out of high season?

paddyrg

It sounds like they were being responsible - you had a miserable holiday, but if it had been different and ended up with 3000 people ill...

WestonDave

They refunded the unused part of the holiday and effectively enforced the norovirus health guidance which is to avoid contact with other people for 48 hours after the patient has stopped being sick/having diarrhoea. I don;t see what is so unreasonable.

It might also be worth pointing out that elsewhere on this same forum people are calling for Butlins Bognor site to be shut down and everyone cleared out so it can be cleaned to avoid people getting the same bug, whilst Irwin Mitchell solicitors are putting together a class action of people wanting to sue Butlins for getting ill at Bognor. I'm sure you might have been happy to stay but clearly Butlins are damned either way!

SUESMITH_2

sorry, but they behaved in a responsible manner

kippers

I'm sorry but i do not agree with you all...we think because of the problems at Bognor they over re-acted..our doctor told us this morning that it was highly unlikely that it was the norovirus as the sickness did not last long enough and our dd would have been far worse. No one examined my dd or even saw her and we were not offered a doctor to confirm what it was....it could have been something she had eaten or even contaminated water in the swimming pool.

We were treated appaulingly....we were cross examined in front of other campers and not offered any kind of explanation or anywhere private to discuss the situation. They only thing they told us was that two other people had been sent home this week, we didn't even know about the norovirus outbreak last week at bognor until we got home yesterday .

One question i would like to ask you all is: if my dd came home from school after being sick, would it be acceptable to send her whole class home incase they got it and would i keep my other dd off school just in case she gets it and would my dh not go to work just incase he got it and spread it.....the answer is a big 'NO'. I'm sorry but i think because of the norovirus outbreak last week at bognor, butlins are going over the top covering themselves and ruining innocent peoples holidays in the process.

Just a note to say it has now been 48 hours since my dd was last sick and we are all here with any further outbreaks, i still maintain our holiday was ruined because of the outbreak of the norovirus last week at a completely different site!


Edit: I have just read through all the other posts re the bognor outbreak of the norovirus and yes i can understand why they over reacted and straight the way assumed it was the norovirus and sent us home but i still maintain that the way they did it was appauling and made us feel like leppers. They just assumed it was the norovirus without any futher investigations. They even told us if we didn't go they would get security to remove us...my dd was in pieces listening to it all. It would have been nice to be told about the norovirus and their concerns and reasons for sending us home but there was no explanation what so ever just "you must leave now"

RobertoMoir

It sounds like they treated you in a bad way and there's no excuse for that, but with regards to the idea behind what they were doing, Butlins are between the devil and the deep blue sea on this one.

On the grounds that someone will be upset no matter what they do, they may figure its better to have people upset because you were too cautious than upset that you were not cautious enough.

babyshoes

I think if you complain you need to be clear that you are upset about the way the policy was implemented, rather than the fact of them implementing it. You may also want to suggest that they get someone with medical knowledge to check up on patients before being so heavy handed and upsetting children.

pearl123

Decided to cancel my comments.

Bob_the_Saver

You were lucky actually, you might have had to STAY in Minehead !

kippers

babyshoes wrote: »

I think if you complain you need to be clear that you are upset about the way the policy was implemented, rather than the fact of them implementing it. You may also want to suggest that they get someone with medical knowledge to check up on patients before being so heavy handed and upsetting children.

Yes i totally agree with you. We realise that butlins have covered themselves in their terms and conditions re sending us home but yes it was the way they went about it, it was so heavy handed.

We are really all still in shock from it as we all love our holidays at Minehead butlins and this was our eighth year there and usually their customer service is really good. My dd who is 11 was really good though and said as she was crying her eyes out "we aren't all millionaires you know, we can't afford another holiday, i'm not leaving until you book us another holiday"!....i think she has been reading this website.:T