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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think vomiting people should be isolated in waiting rooms?

50 replies

HungryHippoMummy · 20/01/2019 19:04

At out of hours (Which doubles as minor injuries) with my DH and DD(2). I had to drive him as gardening injury before anyone asks why the family outing!
There is a girl vomiting in the waiting room. Likelihood is it's a nasty bug. It could be non contagious but since she's not been seen yet they have no way of knowing.
I'm immunocompromised and this would hospitalise me. I also obviously don't want DH or DD to catch it, and I'm sure the other people in the waiting room don't either! Aibu to think she should be isolated whilst she waits? By definition this is a room of vulnerable people and she's actively spewing everywhere!

OP posts:

Weetabixandshreddies · 20/01/2019 19:45

Those saying immunocompromised people should isolate themselves - the OP has, she is in the car. But her husband, the patient, is stuck in the waiting room with the vomit. He might now be brewing it, take it home and give it to her wife, who is immunocompromised.

Maybe she should isolate herself at home too?

negomi90 · 20/01/2019 19:47

I can only speak for kids areas of a&e. They are a hotbed of viruses - coughs, vomits, skin etc. 75%% of children will have a contagious virus, 20% an injury, 5% something else.
Vulnerable children get kept out of the waiting room (and their parents told not to wander). We have a baby room for babies who are un vaccinated (due to age). Immunocompromised children would be seen in cubicles very quickly (as they are at risk of being very unwell).
From a numbers point of view its far easier to isolate the extra vulnerable then the potentially infectious.

Fluffyears · 20/01/2019 19:48

My brother was in A&E for vomiting under the instruction of his cancer consultant. He was becoming dehydrated due to vomiting from chemo. Should have just told him to stay home and die eh?

CoperCabana · 20/01/2019 19:49

I once got sent by 111 to a walk in clinic because she had a temperature which didn’t respond to calpol and nurofen. She had no other symptoms. When we arrived, she puked all over me. I was mortified and said we should leave, but they were insistent we stayed. About four hours (of stinking of vomit) later we were seen. To be sent home with antibiotics we didn’t need!

lljkk · 20/01/2019 19:56

I thought I had a vomitting bug. I couldn't keep anything down.
It turned out I had something closer to sepsis. Not at all contagious to others.

I keep thinking about people with suspected Ebola quarantined together for assessment. Some of them only had malaria, or typhoid fever. Their risk of getting Ebola went up after being quarantined with genuine Ebola patients. Who did that protect?

ButtMuncher · 20/01/2019 19:59

It's a tough one. In an ideal world vomiting bugs should be contained, but like so many PP have said it could be any number of reasons for the vomiting. Migraines, appendicitis - you just don't know. I had to go to A&E once when I caught hand foot and mouth and spiked a temperature of 41 that wouldn't come down with any medication, all spots had sores and infected, and the isolated me. I didn't want to be there but they said had I left it another day I was at risk of sepsis.

Lonelyheart2020 · 20/01/2019 20:04

Wheetabix they should speak to the staff about the risk

There is so many things that are contagious they just can’t isolate everyone at all
My daughter is has a immune system issue which requires her to attend a&e with every spiked fever to start IV antibiotics we are always moved in to a side room.
It’s easier for them to protect her that way than clear an entire a&e for one person

Original poster

HungryHippoMummy · 20/01/2019 20:08

Again:

they have free treatment room they could put her in
it's not a&e. Obviously if she is very ill with dehydration, appendix, sepsis, concussion etc, she should be in hospital not at an out of hours.
not judging her, poor girl, but the system that thinks it makes more sense to infect more patients (surely that isn't cost effective when 5 more people end up in hospital?)
no, I don't know why she was vomiting. But neither did the staff until she had been seen so surely you should treat it as contagious until they know otherwise? And yes, I think we should all pay more tax to the NHS. I'm just not convinced the current government would actually give it to them!

OP posts:

Onescaredmuma · 20/01/2019 20:12

Funily enough we were the contagious ones today with my DS having suspected hand foot and mouth we were isolated. In a separate corridor waiting room. It wasn't fun at all with 3 DCs 6, 4 and 1 and was awful having to let the 4 year old go to the toilet and just stand and watch the door from the other side of the waiting room, however I was very glad we were isolated as I would hate to pass on something to someone else. I also have to admit it would have been more comfortable in any of the empty rooms rather than trying to keep 3 young children entertained single handed in effectively a corridor with some chairs. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable reason we could not use them but I was looking very longingly at them on my thousandth walk up the corridor to retrieve DS who would not be contained!

Original poster

HungryHippoMummy · 20/01/2019 20:13

@fluffyears what are you talking about? Obviously dehydrated people should be in hospital. (In separate rooms if they are contagious) but this isn't a hospital where they can rehydrate, it's a GP service! I've been in hospital rehydrated from vomiting and it's saved my life. That doesn't mean it would have been ok for the staff to not isolate me to protect others if there were rooms available!

OP posts:

rightreckoner · 20/01/2019 20:14

Both my dcs have been hospitalised in the past year with vomiting. It’s not necessarily self limiting.

bobstersmum · 20/01/2019 20:16

Why on earth would anyone go to a&e with a stomach bug! Bonkers. Its not an accident nor is it an emergency.

rightreckoner · 20/01/2019 20:18

bobster see my post immediately above yours. In one case GP sent us to A&E. In the other case 111 sent us. In both cases the DCs were admitted.

Talkingfrog · 20/01/2019 20:18

We took our daughter to A&E when she had been vomiting. 3 times in 30 mins then she went floppy and blacked out on us. She was 2. Turns out she didn't vomit again when there, but the doctor thought she would. They were concerned enough to keep her in overnight. She had only had a duct in her heart blocked 12 months before.

Original poster

HungryHippoMummy · 20/01/2019 20:19

Sometimes people do need a&e with stomach bugs. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying they should be isolated until staff can confirm it isn't contagious when there are rooms available (which there were today).
Also, it still wasn't an A&E... Seriously does anyone actually read the posts properly?

OP posts:

emzw12 · 20/01/2019 20:27

Is it just vomiting you object to? The person sat next to you might have highly contagious flu or chest infection or something else but probably wouldn't be visibly apparent to you.

labazsisgoingmad · 20/01/2019 20:27

i was in scotland once and was vomiting like a good un in the waiting room not for d and v but migraine. in the end i had to have iv painkillers as i had nothing else touching it so i apologise for the excessive sickness and excessive amount of bowls used

Seacow87 · 20/01/2019 20:27

(Experience working in ooh) - if I isolated every patient who vomited I would need a member of staff to keep an eye on those patients. If they are all in the waiting room reception have eyes on them. What If they collapsed etc alone in an exam room?
It's not ideal. It's very difficult. We try out best to keep any one who is immunocompromised safe.

t1mum3 · 20/01/2019 20:35

@negomi90 genuine question. How do you classify vulnerable? My son has type one diabetes so a vomiting bug can be extremely dangerous but he’s never been isolated when attending a&e for something else.

Weetabixandshreddies · 20/01/2019 20:40

I would imagine a lot of patients are at risk - young, elderly, immunocompromised.

Very difficult all round.

thaegumathteth · 20/01/2019 20:45

Dd (8) was recently sat in a&e with a sick bowl but didn’t vomit. She had spent the previous 7/8 hours curled in a ball screaming in pain and vomiting. Literally the pain stopped about 5 mins after arriving but as we’d been sent by GP I didn’t want to leave as he suspected appendicitis.

Fluffyears · 20/01/2019 21:33

@hungryhippummy my post was in response to this codswallop:

Honestly, these bugs are self limiting and they should just stay the fuck at home. Unless you feel like they need IV fluids (I’m guessing the majority of vomiting kids in A&E don’t) then do everyone a favour and stay home. vomiting isn’t always a bug and can be dangerous in some groups. Maybe you should read the thread!

Helix1244 · 20/01/2019 22:13

Dd vomited in the ooh waiting room she had a uti and a 40+ temp.
She always vomits if she has a temp really high.

Maybe the solution is to hand out face masks if you know there are contagious people vomitting there all day long.
Maybe if people realised how often people were being sick in the a&e and gp etc it might put them off attending unnecessarily.
When dd1 went to hospital by ambulance they advised me not to take few month old dd2 as the wait was really long and she would likely catch something

m0therofdragons · 20/01/2019 22:20

Make sure your whole family washes hands with soap and water then you should be fine. Alcohol gel doesn't kill sickness bugs you need the soap to lift the germs from your hands and warm water to wash them down the sink.

debbie1990 · 21/01/2019 07:07

I'm surprised you'd go into A&E/minor injuries unless completely necessary. You could have dropped him off and picked up, as the immune compromised patient would be "at risk" it would be them isolated.

My DS is susceptible to infection so if he needed to go to A&E we call ahead and he is put away from the waiting area in a room.

As PP have said there are lots of reasons they may be vomiting that are not contagious.

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