Why is a trip to the walk-in centre a family outing?

[freeAnneBoleyn]

For some?

I went yesterday. Looked full to bursting when I came in, not a single free chair. Looked to be a lot of families with one sick/injured member, with both parents and other children in attendance. Why? If you have two parents why in God’s name would you drag your other child to sit amongst lurgy ridden patients for four hours and have to worry about keeping them amused as well?!

I eventually got a chair when someone else got called up- I had a fractured shoulder it turned out so not desperately ill obviously but still in pain and was anticipating, correctly as it turned out, a very very long wait.

Worst was family of five opposite- one feverish looking child asleep on mum’s lap, two older children and a dad. He’d brought sweets and sandwiches for everyone but the kids were bored shitless which led to the inevitable handing over of a phone to mess around on with the horrible pingy sounds of the game they played audible to everyone. Another toddler was left to just roam about, and started running up and down.

It made for an even more unpleasant waiting experience for people who are in pain and sick, exposing healthy children to germs, and bloody boring for them too.

I am NOT judging any parent that had no choice to bring other children along, but if there are two of you...why do it??

Oh yes I missed the 4 children part so 13 people for one minor injury - unbelievable

I agree user - it's also very intimidating for other people when a dozen people together all walk in, no matter how naice you think your family are

As others have mentioned, antenatal waiting rooms are a pain in the arse for this. Specifically routine MLU clinics where everyone is low risk- waddling into a packed waiting room with SPD alone and seeing the majority of chairs taken up by people who aren’t pregnant women or their partners.

Great that everyone’s excited about a new family member, but I can’t imagine why anyone would need Grandad and Auntie Myrtle there for a urine test and a blood pressure check.

When I had my antenatal care in Dublin they used to send a scary midwife into the waiting room to scold the able-bodied and non-pregnant people for taking a seat from pregnant women who actually needed to be there.

I just don’t get why, if you have two adults, you’d subject the other kids to a hospital waiting room. What a pile of shite for them and you. Leave them at home.

but I’ve seen whole families, come out the back of one ambulance.

I've never been in an ambulance where they allow more than one family member/carer.

If we have ever had to go to an emergency clinic then we both go as one of us drives while the other looks after DC. We only have one though and would probably not want to take other children if we had any.
I've seen the situation you describe every time we have been.

To the people saying that I'm "obviously not who the OP was referring to"...

I only found out that I nearly died the next day. Not a single person correctly diagnosed my illness until they did exploratory surgery (after misleading test results and scans). For all anyone in urgent care knew, it could have just been bad gas and I didn't need to be there at all with an increasingly bored toddler (I also didn't know, which is why I wasn't at A&E - the doctor almost sent me home but eventually decided to turf me over to surgery). Didn't change how I felt, I still wanted my partner with me. Bet a bunch of the other patients wondered what I was sat there for and at times I wondered if it was worth it myself.

But, just because someone doesn't look like they are dying, doesn't mean something serious isn't potentially going on that you don't know about. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt - "invisible disabilities" and "everyone fighting battles you know nothing about" and all that stuff. Who knows, maybe one of these people you have judged so harshly never made it home...

@WhatOnEarthDoIDoNow

13 people for 1 minor face injury? This is exactly the scenario that OP posted about.

13 people, taking seats, blocking doorways, screaming and shouting and running around making a nuisance of themselves! Just why?? Please don't try to tell us the 13 people, mainly young children, were all sitting, quietly, on the floor. We have all experienced different.

Your mum would have been better off with one person escorting. Nobody, who is not well, needs a bloody circus around them! Whether the circus is their own family members or not 🙄

Your adult sister, who drives, would have been an adequate chaperone. You could have stayed home to look after all the kids. That would have made more sense.

Gunpowder I’m calling it, funniest post of 2019 already in the bag

Er the 1.08 one (not the serious ones)

hazeyjane where I live people use ambulances as a taxi service, it’s a known fact.

I've spent a lot of time in A and E over the past few years and the number of people others have with them is ridiculous. The most ridiculous was one adult with three "supporters". They were all chatting away and one of the women was talking about it as a day out. They were taking up spaces that should have been used for patients. For the record, I don't take my DP to hospital as I don't want him taking up space. Unless there are disability issues etc. I see no reason to take more than one person with you.

WhatOnEarthDoIDoNow you had 13 people for your mum with a cut and scraped face? You know it’s a hospital not a theme park right? You didn’t all need to be there I don’t care how much you think you did. Your sister could have dropped you off, one of you could have had all the kids at home. You could have done updates by phone for goodness sake. I mean seriously, I bet the staff couldn’t believe it. Except they could because this happens all the bloody time. Talk about creating a drama.

Clinics and AE are full of sick people. I would always avoid taking family outing to the local germ pool for a dose of the sickness bug or flu.
Equally kids are germ pools and taking them to AE where vulnerable elderly, cancer patients, newborns is also unfair. To be avoided if possible. X

user1457017537 I'm just surprised because I thought ambulances didn't take people unless necessary (so if they can be treated there and then rather than transferred to hospital) and when we have been in an ambulance with ds they have specified that only one adult can come with him.

My DM is also in her 60s and anaemic and iron deficient. She would be horrified if I described her as ‘frail’. She’d also wonder what the fuck was going on if 13 relatives turned up if she fell over.

WhatOnEarthDoIDoNow, if your mother is healthy enough to run after a dog, there is no way on earth that you all need to worry about her so much that 13 people had to go along with her for what was, in the grand scheme of things, a pretty minor injury. Are you really sure that none of you was simply enjoying the drama and the break in routine?

I had a similar-ish accident when I fell when running for a bus and I'm a similar age to your mother. I cut my face, broke my glasses, was winded, bruised my ribs and was quite shocked, but I got myself back to my home station from central London. At that point I wimped out of getting myself to the walk-in centre and phoned DH to collect me and give me a lift, and he stayed with me and took me home. At no point did it even occur to us to phone our adult children, let alone have them all turn up to sit in the waiting room.

When my DCs were 4 and 2 on Easter Sunday I had the most horrific earache imaginable - felt worse than labour! I was up all night vomiting and on the phone with NHS Direct and got them to give me a walk in appointment in the morning when no GPS would be open.

Although I was still queasy I still had DH stay home with the DCs rather than take me, plus them (we had no emergency childcare), to the clinic and I drove myself. Looking back, even though the drive was fine in the end it was a dumb thing to do - I should have called a taxi and brought sick bags - but the thought of having 2 bored and antsy little ones squabbling in the waiting room, with me having to referee (toddler taming in public wasn’t DH’s strong suit) was so unbearable I preferred to drive myself. As it was my eardrum burst in the waiting room and I can’t imagine how miserable that would have been with the DCs in tow.

Don’t understand why anyone would bring a child to a medical situation unless they absolutely had no choice. I do accept that many of the situations here are truly “no choice” but those that aren’t boggle my mind.

it makes me concerned when one of my kids has been ill. If it’s during a weekend I let ds stay with dh whilst I take dd to the walk in. If it’s ever happened during the week and the appointment is before dh gets home from work then I have to take both kids with me. One time when I took dd to see dr a whole family practically walked in i mean there was even grandparents.....

Maybe these places need a policy of patient plus one only, unless there are childcare problems!

Maybe people just need to realise that other families have other situations that they may be unaware of and that sitting in the waiting room judging other people on their reasons for being there or why others are with them isn't very nice.

Again, perhaps I get more frustrated with this behaviour because I have children with those pesky "invisible disabilities," so I get judged on a regular basis when out and about.

it's interesting that people on here are saying "oh yeah, only one parent is necessary...." Then go on threads where parents are moaning that their child's father is never involved in the caring aspect or the ex never has to help out or shows up to help when there's a problem.

Involving both parents when a child is ill or injured is beneficial in many ways - if nothing else, when a child is ill or injured and they are in the waiting room, often the parents can (over the few hours or more they are waiting) swap back and forth so that the other parent can stretch their legs, use the toilet, get a coffee.

I had hoped 2019 would bring a slight wave of compassion to MN. How utterly disappointing.

Sorry but I agree with OP.IF it's an ill adult and other adult needs to drive with children accompanying the it's a drop off and leave adult situation. If child ill one adult stays and other adult looks after child. Exception is single parent or family where one adult absent for some reason.

DP had to drop me at A and E with suspected meningitis so he could get the children from school.. I was on a drip within 20 minutes or so though so didn't take up a seat for long!

Sorry but I agree with OP.IF it's an ill adult and other adult needs to drive with children accompanying the it's a drop off and leave adult situation. If child ill one adult stays and other adult looks after child. Exception is single parent or family where one adult absent for some reason.

Wow. The "exception." FFS.

I don't judge people if both parents are there with an ill or injured child, even though my own children cannot cope with busy waiting rooms due to their disabilities. I think "it's good to see both parents involved and supporting their child and each other" instead. I try to remember that different people have different needs and different support systems and respect that.

Perhaps that mother with an ill baby over there is still breast feeding but also suffering from PPD and needs her partner there for support while waiting.

Perhaps that child's mother was at work, so grandmother who was watching the child took child to A&E or OOH and mother just got here straight from work on public transport, so grandmother is waiting to take them all home (or just take child home if mother has to go back to work).

Perhaps that child's parents have just separated but they are trying to put on a united front to support their child while the child is ill and are trying to learn how to navigate co-parenting properly.

Perhaps that larger family was on an outing together and don't have other transport home or cannot afford alternative transport home. Or they are simply waiting to make sure the illness or injury is not serious or need other extended care before they leave, in case other arrangements need to be made. Or they were on an outing and live too far away to make it feasible to go and come back... or public transportation is not available for them due to the time, location, or their particular situation.

Too much to ask for people just to give others the benefit of the doubt, I suppose.

Having both parents there is no big deal. Having 12 other people who are a mixture of adults and kids is very different.

WhoIAmToDiss It may be rarer, but there are people in their 60s who are frail. A woman I used to work with is in her late 60's, has arthritis and multiple joint problems, and looks like a woman in her late 80s/90s. She is very frail as a simple fall could lead to serious issues. I am only 4 years away from being 60 and am nowhere near frail and don't expect to be by then.
The 13 people was ridiculous, but don't judge that someones health can not be really nad just because they are only in their 60's.