To wonder why the whole family need a fun day out at outpatients?

[Welshmaenad]

I'm at fracture clinic, on my own (sob!) yet every other patient seems to be accompanied by at least three family members. Not only is the main waiting area packed but as patients are called through they ALL get up and trek into the very limited clinical waiting area. I'm currently standing up because a small boy in plaster has been followed I to clinical waiting by mum, dad, small sibling, baby sibling in pram and someone I presume is Aunt Maud or possibly a middle aged woman they found on the street and dragged along for the party.

Surely one companion is sufficient in all but the most exceptional of circumstances?? What's the appeal of an orthopaedic clinic waiting room when clinic is running an hour late? What is WRONG with these folk?

in the waiting room for bloods for pregnant women I once counted the pregnant woman, partner, partner's brother, partner's mother.

Definitely a day out.

Bring a friend, sure. Bring your child's other parent, fine. But 8 relatives accompanying one person to an appointment?! No - just no.

'I've got fb friends who actually put their a&e trips on their status on their way in.'

Ditto. But some people don't seem to be able to blow their noses without putting it on FB

I am a terrible parent. When dd1 broke her arm at the skate park (with 2 other dc's plus SIL) I drove to the hospital, got her checked in, then left her in the waiting room on her own while I drove the rest of them home.

It was obvious it was broken, and the idea of waiting around for hours with SIL and bored siblings wasn't my idea of fun.

She survived the experience. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done it if she was younger (she was 12) and I wouldn't have done it if it was either of the other two, and we do live relatively close to the hospital...

It was either that or drive the rest of them home first, but she looked a bit green and I figured getting her in the queue was the best thing.

She still loves me

In hindsight, it does remind me a little of our friend who was working with his son in a remote part of their ranch, when the son fell from his horse and broke his arm. Dad claimed he was too busy to drive him, so made the boy walk the 3 km back to the ranch house and get his mum to drive him to hospital to get the bones set. He was 13.

We breed 'em hard round here.

There are no families in the waiting room. Usually there are various people holding bits of their body together on their own.. (And apparently unaccompanied minors... )

I used to amuse myself at my antenatal appointments by trying to work out what the relationship were between these large groups of people

It is definitely a question of nothing better to do, but they always look so bored! Just go home and watch the telly instead if there really is nowhere more interesting to be.

Sometimes there will be me, DH and both our DC at Children's Outpatients as both DC have SEN and I try to schedule their appointments one after the other. Likewise we were all in A&E once when DH was very ill (turned out to be meningitis) and I had no one to have them. I wouldn't do that unless completely avoidable though.

YANBU

I saw this over 18 months of a temporary physical disability. There was a sign saying "Please give up your seat for patients" But did those tossers who were perfectly mobile and unencumbered with casts, pain, etc actually take any notice? Not on your life.

Sadly, a lot of people are just rude & thoughtless.

Agree, bringing 1 adult if you are stressed and very unwell or expecting bad news is fine, bringing a dependant child if it's an emergency and you can't get childcare is fine,bringing a large extended family is just silly. If you do need a lift to the hospital they could sit in the car or go for a walk.
If you're feeling sick a small healthy unnecessary child eating cheesy crisps near you isn't helpful. If it's a meal time feed them proper food, if it's not then tell them to wait. no one "needs" a pack of crisps especially in a hospital.
I've always just gone on my own or with husband.

It is bizarre. The family I know who do it, I think do it from a lack of confidence with 'officials'. Neither the mum or dad will do anything without the other.
As you can imagine it makes it very hard for either of them to hold down a job.

I noticed a sign on the wall of the clinic down the corridor, it said something like 'only the patient and one accompanying friend or family member will be permitted to wait in the waiting room. The room is small and too many people cannot be accommodated. Please do not attend this clinic with more than one accompanying person' Wonder if it works?

No.

Not ime, anyway

I've never been somewhere that was packed. If it was, I would definitely get DH to take DD to the store! Most of my appointments have had cavernous empty waiting rooms (such that I started to worry anyone was there at all... especially the ones with signs saying "no receptionist. Wait in blue chairs until you are called" what if I was in the wrong spot? anyway...)

My dentist also books family appointments, and we do all go in at once. But at the moment that's just so 3yo DD can see someone poking at Mum and Dad's mouth so she knows it okay for her too...

I avoid taking my kids into hospital at all costs, everytime one has gone for something they come back with s&d. If they need to go then one parent goes and the other stays at home with the other kids.

At my last antenatal appointment, there was a family consisting of mum, dad (?), daughter (?) in early 20s, two little boys of around 4-5 years of age. First mum feeds them a whole box of Smarties each. Then acts surprised when sugar kicks in and boys race around the waiting room like mad things and won't stop shrieking. Then attempts to restore order by threatening to ban all McDonald's for a whole week.

I wonder why hospitals can't try to enforce some rules around this? Ours certainly isn't doing anything...

Sorry to go slightly off topic but......
No such thing as sugar rush!

Sorry really bugs me.

YANBU... I once had to take dd to A&E in the middle of the night and there was a little boy with about 8 relatives - four were adults the rest children.

I did wonder if I was hallucinating from lack of sleep when they all grouped up for a big family photo THEN produced a cool box and proceeded to pass round a picnic. It was 3am When they were finally called the doctor had to stop the whole lot trooping through.

I actually thought I'd dreamt it until DD asked me the next day why people were having a picnic while we were waiting!!

When I was a student on delivery suite, there was a family of extended relatives waiting outside for a baby to be born, and this included uncles, cousins, children in school uniform at 11pm. It was crazy, and nobody in the group was pleased that only the mother's mum and husband were allowed on delivery suite to actually see the baby. The midwives stuck to the rules for the privacy of everyone else, even though the family tried to argue that the mother's sister's young daughter had died in a house fire a year earlier and that meant the family should be allowed to bend the rules. Tragic but totally inappropriate.

Oh and YANBU

We did this recently! Breastfed baby had hospital appointment so obviously I had to go. I don't drive so dh had to come. Nobody else to look after three siblings so along they came!

Has anyone ever see people get asked to move by the hospital staff to let a genuine patient sit?

It's not the same but when I used to cover the footwear department at work I regularly booted people out of seats when they weren't trying shoes so someone who was could sit. I probably wasn't the most popular of people but it irritated me when someone was just sat there, shopping bags all over the floor, having a rest when they they could see some poor sod hopping about on one foot trying to get a shoe on.

Bloody selfish.

I get annoyed by this too but also feel like one poster who felt less loved than those people accompanied by a giant family pack. Completely off topic. For some reason this reminded me of the Catherine Tate nan sketch where she objects to everything about the GP waiting room. Pointing to a guy in a tracksuit she thought must be healthy and taking up space because he was wearing a...'fucking running suit'.

I feel the same way about supermarkets!

We have been guilty of this. Dd fell and hurt herself at a party and her brother was really worried about her so we all (2 parents and 2 dcs) went along to A&E. We did leave uncles,aunts and gps at home tho

Breastfed baby had hospital appointment so obviously I had to go. I don't drive so dh had to come. Nobody else to look after three siblings so along they came

Logical & understandable. But you don't ALL have to be in the waiting room.

See as a nurse, I don't have an issue with parents and siblings being there, you're immediate family and sometimes that's just how it is. It's when grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, next door neighbours etc etc turn up and there's 17 relatives present that I don't understand. It's not a day out.