to think there should be a vending machine in A&E?

[princelypurpleparrot]

and not a good five minute walk away in a completely different part of the hospital?!

Was there today, unfortunately. Our wait wasn't too bad, thankfully, but I've been before and had to wait 3-4 hours. They've recently moved to a new building, and they have a water fountain, that's it. We had to leave the house in such a rush that I had no time to pack snacks etc and I was starving after an hour or so. Thankfully DH was there so I could go off on a search for food but if it'd been just me and DS we would have been stuck.

Surely, in a dept where a 4 hour wait is normal, there needs to be somewhere to buy a snack, at least???

I've had 5 admissions via A/E - it never occurs to me to eat because each time I have been admitted I've then been either NBM or clear fluids only (I wish hospitals would decide whether weak black tea is a clear fluid).

But my local A and E is just across the corridor feom a small cafe, and in that corridor is a vending machine.

There is a very busy KFC on the corner of our local hospital car park.

I'm certain we are not the only ones in there to avoid the very limited over priced food at the hospital.

Fortunately A&E have been quick both times we've been and DD has need bones setting under GA so food wouldn't have been wise.

But once admitted to the children's ward Mummy would have loved something better than a very dead vending machine sandwich.

There's a vending machine in my a+e, one for crisps, chocolate, juice and sweets and another for tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

If 30% need an operation in a+e that's still 70% starving and waiting around for 4 hours.

It's a bloody hospital, not a five star restaurant .

Ours has a vending machine. It also has two big signs asking patients waiting to be seen not to eat anything in case they need an anaesthetic. As long as people are informed it works quite well.

Yanbu. Our local hospital has them in A&E, a good money pinned for them, I'd have thought. We've been to A&Es a coupe of times while on holiday in other parts of the UK and I think they had them too.

I was in A&E a couple of weeks ago and one bloke went out to the garage a couple of hundred yards away to get a drink - while he was gone, he got called. No answer, so they shrugged and went on to the next person. We left shortly after, so I hope he didn't have to wait too much longer!

If your going to have a 4 hours wait then generally it's not something urgent/life threatening so why not just check with the staff to see if your going to be seen in the next 10 minutes and then say "ok just going to run to the shop for a snack"

(not always possible I know but is in a lot of cases)

Or if you know you need to eat why not keep something snacky in your handbag?

OP I am a snacker too. Get very grouchy if I've not eaten for 2-3 hours. So in my handbag there lives chocolate/cereal bars. If I eat one, its immediately replenished from the cupboard. This is actually a measure to save money but also means I'm never without a snack.

Now if you want to complain about P&D carparks in hospitals, they are evil. No I don't know how long I will be in A&E for before I go in! Remove the charges or put a barrier in ffs! And last time I was saved by a woman who was just leaving because I was trying to get baby DS into A&E and was 10p short of the shortest time charge. I'd be happier going off to hunt for change once we've finished in A&E.

Ugggh, memories of our nearly 8 months in hospital with vending machines in the back of beyond and all that artificially sweetened crap.

I lost over 2 stone.

YANBU.

YABU - It is not the most hygenic place to be cracking open food and eating it. The amount of times I have been in a and e and had the smell of quavers wafting around and people chewing on a Lion bar makes me want to vomit in a place like that.
I have no idea how anyone can stomach food in a hospital...gross.

The more vending machines, the more rubbish, the more smell and spilt stuff on the floors.

A drink of water and a tea/coffee machine should be plenty.

namechange all I wanted was a small snack, not a 3 course meal! As someone said, I'm sure 70% of the people there are not going to need to be NBM so access to a bit of food would be good.

It's interesting that a lot of people think that IABU and the reasons why. I still think it's a big jump from having a WHSmith in the A&E dept to having nothing except a water fountain.

And as someone else rightly said, P&D parking at A&E is evil!

And to those posters who say I should have something snacky in my handbag, that is a great idea, it really is. But yesterday was one of those situations where I didn't take my handbag as I was in such a panic. I spent the drive there trying to remember if I'd even closed the front door!!!! It's pure luck I had a pocket of change for the carpark (DH met us there just after we arrived).

I was in A&E for over 8 hours a few weeks ago. DS was on oxygen so not mobile and I didn't want to leave him for too long (Sat night, lots of drunk wankers). I did have something snacky in my bag but as I had gone before my dinner I was starving and, like many people in A&E knew I didn't have to be nil by mouth so a vending machine close by would have been a godsend. There is a wrvs shop but it was closed.

btw, before I get told I should be able to manage longer than 8 hours without food, I hadn't eaten for about 4-5 hours before we landed in hospital and after the 8 hours in A&E it was 6 hours on paeds before I could sneak off and buy a flapjack and even then I missed the Dr and got a bollocking.

I had to send ds off on a hunt for a cash point and some food when I was there last week. He's 13 and he's never been there before. He did manage it though. There was a vending machine in A&E which sold fizzy crap, chocolate and crisps. Access to a sandwich would have been helpful.

I find it extraordinary that an adult with no underlying medical condition such as diabetes cannot manage without eating for four hours or missing the odd meal when necessary. I usually have breakfast at 7ish, lunch at 1ish and supper at 7.30ish. I don't eat between meals.

It's not usually 4 hours though, married. I went to see my GP at 11am, was in A&E until 4 pm, then moved. I didn't get home until 9pm. That would have been 10 hours with no food or a drink.

So, married, if you went in at 7 and were there 4 hours then you would have to go 10 hours without food and if you were admitted overnight it would be around 19 hours. I don't eat between meals but ds's last stint in hospital had me going from lunchtime on day one to after ds's breakfast on day 2 (about 20 hours) with only what I grabbed for him as I raced out of the house. I managed it but it wasn't nice.

YADBU

I also get grouchy when hungry. However, as an adult woman I can manage it.

The welsh assembly killed the vending machines in welsh hospital as not junk food was banned, they became less profitable so the machines went :(

I ended up in A&E for 5 hours with DH once when we were on holiday. I had 2 month old breastfeeding DS with me. DH was brought drinks etc once he was sorted and recovering. Me, nothing. It was carefully explained to me that it would be completely unacceptable for me to ask for anything. That refreshments were for patients only (I hadn't asked). And it was the middle of the night and nothing was open elsewhere in the hospital. DH and I shared his cup of tea, surreptitiously, in case we got told off...

I lived with it of course. It was just the unsolicited lecture that got me.

It would really do my head in people eating in the A&E department. There should be a little side room though for people to have a cuppa and a sandwich, its a long wait sometimes.

On the plus side A&E stays a lot cleaner and hardly any drink spills for people to slip on and make claims for

Most a and e departments would see the vending machine kicked, smashed or broken the first Friday night it lived through. A drunk man from a pub brawl ans a stuck machine do not a happy combo make.

Hence the chairs are screwed down, no tables etc

Uabu