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??

"I can understand if there's only you and nobody to leave the kids with. That's it really. If your partner takes you they can leave you there and take the kids off somewhere. They don't have a car? Walk...
I got wheeled into an A+E in a wheelchair, holding a bucket to vomit in and with such a migraine (3 days and counting) I could only pull my knees up and rest my head on a cushion in misery. Kids running around, games played noisily on phones, people having loud chats, it was hell and every time something really pierced my head I vomited. My partner put me outside (quiet and wrapped in a blanket) and went out to fetch me when my name was called.
People are so bloody inconsiderate sometimes."

???

You get to have your parther to look after you.
Anyone with kids does not. They have to leave and go "somewhere".
I'm still boggled by this, can you genuinely not see what you're saying?

I don't tend to notice other people's kids in walk in or A&E and if I do, it's either feeling sorry for their parents having to try and quiet them down or comfort them or feel sympathy for the poor child as they are throwing up/screeching in pain/bandaged up etc.

It's fully grown adults complaining about things that is annoying. Kids often don't know any different but Mabel complaining about her neighbours dog, the state of her GCs school and then that they've been waiting 30 minutes in a very loud voice, just seems ridiculous are far more annoying.

My dd dislocated her elbow while we were in a shop. Should I have driven in the opposite direction of the hospital to take home her dad and my other dd before I took her to get medical attention?

"My partner put me outside (quiet and wrapped in a blanket) and went out to fetch me when my name was called. "

But if you had had a baby, or more, your partner should have left you there, not outside, not with a blanket, not able to help and not able to make you more comfy outside. Not able to get your attention when you were called. You would have to be left to fend for yourself in that state, because you've had a kid.

Do you see what I mean yet? Or still convinced that your approach is correct?

"My dd dislocated her elbow while we were in a shop. Should I have driven in the opposite direction of the hospital to take home her dad and my other dd before I took her to get medical attention?"

Maybe?
Is she over about 11?
If so you could have dropped her at A&E and then taken your other DD "somewhere" to avoid being a selfish bastard
Or sometihng

Honestly don't worry about these miserable sods.
I do worry what people with MHPs can get from this stuff> like I said earlier I know of a situation where a woman who was ill took a thread like this much too seriosuly and it wasnt great.

I do always think if you’re well enough to be enjoying an M&S sandwich picnic in A&E you probably don’t need to be there
The last time I was in A&E half the people there seemed to be waiting for x-rays for suspected broken limbs. They were in for a long wait so why not eat? As said upthread we don't have walk-ins or minor injuries, in our health trust the only x-rays machines are at the A&E hospitals.

I unfortunately had to visit A&E 3 times recently. Each time I got a taxithere while husband looked after the kids, and I kept him up to date with texts.
You wouldn't get a taxi here for love or money between 10pm and 8am. Believe me, I have been there. Buses don't run between 10 and 7am either. Oh and mobile phones don't work in our local A&E. Again I have been there and done that.

Very few of the posters who have said they have had to haul the whole families in had a justifiable reason for doing so tbh.

I don't know if I am included in that, but honestly we try very hard to make things as ok as possible for ds and our dds in each horrible circumstance as they happen. Unfortunately, even with contingency plans in place, emergency numbers, neighbours sometimes able to have girls, having a hospital bag packed at all times and a printed 'hospital passport' to take with us when we have to go to hpspital.....sometimes shit happens and we have to deal with it as best we can, even if this means all of us going.

We've been known to all go as both of my children are breastfed, and I don't see why I should juggle with both of them, one of whom is poorly/injured by myself when (if he's not at work) DP can come with to help. I don't if I can help it, (why on earth would you if you had a choice??) but if I have no milk expressed and it's urgent enough to be going to OOH/A&E it's too urgent for me to be sitting expressing milk before I go out on a trip with no set return time.
We also do the supermarket shop as a family as we don't have a car, and it's too much to carry alone with the smalls with me. I can't get everything we buy online to have it all delivered, and we don't make the minimum order value of I only put in a partial order just to head that suggestion off

@nothingontellyagain

She was 4 at the time my youngest was 2

Probably a tad young to leave alone then
That woudl be my estimate anway

Hope none of the types on the thread were then when you went who may be inclined to tut, glare, and make loud comments about selfish women with children being selfish and so on and so forth.

Nothing more than drama OP and the need to have the whole family tagging themselves in on FB. Drives me f*cking mad.

I've got tieze syndrome and when I get a flare up (rapid onset chest pain) my GP always sends me in to A & E for bloods and an ECG just to be on the safe side. I've been in 3 times this year. The staff are always lovely and I'm normally seen within an hour, then it's just a 6 hr wait for bloods to come back so I sit with a book and my phone. DH or DD drops me off and comes back. But the amount of people sitting in there taking up chairs and space when there is no need to is insane. I'd have a rule of 1 adult per patient max, and no seats if patients need them! I had had morphine last time and was sent to a small waiting room where one lady had 5 people with her. The nurse soon gave them short shrift when she found me and a young lad with his arm in a sling sat on the floor.........

"I'd have a rule of 1 adult per patient max"

Despite being given reasons why more than one is needed?

I had some complications in my recent pregnancy that required quite regular appts with the specialist midwives/consultants/somographers etc. I would always be amazed by one particular family who would turn up with mum, dad, nan and grandad as well as a very lively boy of about 4. Dad would spend almost all of the (usually looooonnnngggg) waiting time telling off the little boy constantly and the little boy whined and became increasingly more disruptive because he was flipping bored I should think. When mum was called in for her appt, dad and Mum would stand up and the little boy would always throw a tantrum and beg to come and would ALWAYS be left with nan and grandad in the waiting room. I just wanted to scream ‘why didn’t you just leave him at home with them???!!’

@freeAnneBoleyn @regmover you are truly awful. What I was trying to say is you don't know personal circumstances. I live 15 miles from the nearest A&E so no we wouldn't drop off and collect later! Both very judgemental people 😡

If our DS was Ill requiring a walk in centre or A&E. DH and I would both go, because we would both be worried about him. If I was ill, DH would take me because my ptsd is triggered by me having any treatment in hospital. Lack of baby sitters means DSwould have to come to. I’d DH was injurered id usually go, because I care about him. Families usually go to such things together because they want to look after each other. Families go shopping together because they want to choose food together or are on way from somewhere. The world has gone mad.

It’s rude that they are taking up seats needed by actually sick people. It’s totally unnecessary to take all of your kids to the hospital when the other parent can have them at home. But as is normal these days, most people never think about others.

This is getting boring now. OP is clearly talking about minor non-emergencies with countless family members (who don't need to be there) taking up seats.

Cue bizarre posts of:

But I'm a single mum so I take my kids (yes everyone is in agreement that it's different when you're on your own)
I nearly died, should I have left my DH at home???! (don't be ridiculous you know it doesn't apply to you)
I was so ill I couldn't drive (fair enough but in most cases people can be dropped off or take the kids to a hospital canteen)
My child nearly died should I have left DH at home!!! (see above)

I actually am going to give posters the benefit of the doubt and believe are being obtuse rather than stupid when they post these things.

Oh and if your hubby will have a sulk on for not having the opportunity to play Protector for your non-emergency tell him to strap on a pair

Nothing you seem hell bent, almost in a gleeful way, that you get to point out a PP had her DH with her and suggest maybe she shouldn't have if other people can't have their kids.
Firstly that poster was ina wheelchair and holding a dick bucket, so by your reckoning that people support then it's fine for him to be there
Secondly, a supportive adult who needs to transport a patient in a wheelchair is NOT the same as having annoying bored children moaning and kicking chairs, who don't need to be there
Thirdly, you're coming across as very nasty to that particular poster, almost enjoying their quote distressing story

I do think this "bring the family along" - be it hospital, walk in centre, pregnancy scans etc - is a fairly new thing because I do think people thrive on drama. It's the same reason people "check in" to hospital on Facebook (seriously why would you do this other than for attention?!). They all want the cookies for being a super duper family member. But the ones who cut their finger and being 10 family members along are the ones who forget that NHS is run by staff, not robots, and people getting in the way is enormously detrimental to the staff, services and other patients. If you don't need to be there, then don't be!

Also so many of you'd would be baffled at my family. DSis cut the very ends of two of her fingers off when chopping salad at a BBQ she and BIL were hosting one year 🤢 in a hasty panic her 15yo DD (unnecessarily) rang an ambulance who did come and took DSis to hospital, with her finger ends in a little bag with ice in.

No one went with her, we all sat and had beer, burgers and hot dogs in the garden until we got the call to say all was fine and BIL went to pick her up (SIL said she'd be happy to go alone) with her finger ends stitched back on and bandaged (we even took the piss when she got back). Then again we all worked for the NHS in various capacities and I think health workers are most definitely the hardiest when it comes to these things!

I'm now thinking we should have all piled in the car - BIL, me, DH and our newborn, 2 nieces, granny, great granny and grandad. And pick up a couple of strays on the way. We could have taken the BBQ too, give the picnic-ers a run for their money (as an aside who the hell eats a picnic in a clinical waiting area full of sick people! Grim!)

A lot of our visits to the walk in become family outings. My mum fell once when running after the dog when he escaped, she smacked her face and chin on the ground. She ended up biting through her lower lip, had bleeding gums, chin and face. Looked like she'd been in the boxing ring. She's in her 60's and I was five steps behind her. I panicked and because I don't drive messaged the family chat. One of my sisters came and drove me, her and my sisters three kids to the walk in center because mum refused to go to A&E, my other three sisters and four of the nine kids they have between them came as well. Partly due to a lack of childcare and partly because everyone was so worried about her. None of the kids were allowed to run riot though and they sat on the floor in front of those of us that were standing near mum or on knees. We didn't want to take up more room than necessary but there was no way anyone was going to leave before we made sure mum was ok. Possibly overkill and worry for a fall but she's frail and anemic and deficient in calcium and iron.

There have been other times when I've been seriously ill in hospital or in waiting rooms and several, like five+ family members have turned up to make sure I'm ok and I get that may be a pain for you all but when your scared and alone and seriously ill. You want and need the support. I've spent a lot of time in hospital and they really make a difference to you and your recovery.

So you had nine people accompanying your mother to a walk in centre?! For a bleeding face - 60s is not old! Entirely unnecessary and a tremendous pain for staff who'll have been groaning inwardly at you all. If you have a group message why couldn't one of you just go and send updates?! What a boring day out for the kids too.

And allowing five family members to turn up to a waiting room is highly unnecessary too, you may not realise but this is crap for staff and other patients, it's a hospital not a cafe

I don’t know why this is allowed. Last time I went to A&E for myself I took my DH for moral support and because I was really unwell and wouldn’t have been able to get there on my own. But it would have been totally inappropriate to take any DC that weren’t dependent ie breastfeeding infants.

I counted 13

Yes I count 13 people as well, for one minor injury.

I also have a hard time understanding why whole families go to the supermarket together. I have always shopped online as much as possible and go food shopping without DC in tow as they add precisely nothing to the experience - they make it much slower and they distract me, meaning things get forgotten.

Dear lord theres some people want to make this about them...

If you NEED to bring an entourage with you - fine, you need to.

Lots of people however, do NOT need to bring an entourage, but do so because a trip to the walk in or A&E is 'drama' and they have to be involved in the minutia of it.

For those of us (me) unlucky enough to have to spend a LOT of time in such places, we see this crap going on - a whole extended family, several adults several kids, all in because wee Johnny scraped his knee at school 10 hours ago and he's been home, had his tea and all off to hospital for the evenings entertainment.

I go loads, I hate it - unless I actually can't speak, OH wheels me in the door and buggers off, and I ring him when I need him to return.

The only times its really bothered me is when I've been ambulanced in and that means I don't have my wheelchair with me so I'll likely end up waiting uncomfortably on a chair once I am kicked out.