Worried about our brief trip to A&E the other night.

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My child injured themselves badly and we were advised by 111 to go to a&e to clean him up and dress it - typical not been to a&e in years.

Walked in the entrance easily. Just walked straight in. I’m surprised there was no one at the door checking why people are there or checking for fevers. Walked closely past 2 people in the waiting room to get to the desk. I was only in there a few minutes before they said we had to go elsewhere.

They sent me to another hospital as they didn’t have enough staff there to deal with it. The hospital we went to was a set up minor injuries in an outpatient part of the hospital a few miles away! No one else in the very large spacious waiting room and they were checking temperatures at the door. I felt much more at ease.

Now I’m totally panicking that walking in a&e with DS could have be dangerous. There were people in the waiting room but weren’t seeing people for injuries supposedly. Why were they there? Would people displaying covid signs be in the a&e waiting room? They had masks on. We weren’t offered masks at either hospital!

Please tell me I’m being stupid? I know the risk is everywhere and I could pick it up at the shops and there aren’t many cases where I live but what if the person we walked past in a&e had just sneezed or coughed and the virus was around! We didn’t touch anything and used our own sanitiser rather than the hospital pumps.

There was nothing else you could do, it’s happened now. The risk will be small. Worrying won’t help.

The hospital you went to might not have been dealing with injuries but they were presumably dealing with other things. I've been sent to A&E on various occasions in the past few years by my doctor. But its been for blood tests for the flare up of an existing condition I've got.

Realistically if those people were there for covid symptoms they wouldnt allow them to mix with other patients. You're likely at no more risk there than you would be at the supermarket etc.

I wouldnt worry

I don’t think you would have been any more at risk than if you were in a shop.
The doorman was probably just at the toilet or something.

Don’t worry about it, it won’t help.
Hope all good now.

I'm not sure why you think you should have been offered masks by the NHS for visiting A&E when it has been widely reported that medical staff working directly with people infected with covid don't even have adequate PPE.
I very much doubt they would have left anyone who described having covid symptoms just out in reception where people have to walk past them to get in. Do you think that's likely?

And in any case even if you do get it you are likely to recover quickly like the vast, vast majority of under 70 year olds. So there's no need to panic really.

@Ohtherewearethen the patients waiting in a&e waiting room has masks on! So did a few patients I seen outside smoking did too!

Just baffled why there was no one outside and also why I was sent elsewhere but I’m glad I was the the different hospital was much more organised!

Honestly, we are going to be living with this virus for at least the next few years. I think you need to try to get a hold on your anxieties. Lockdown can not last forever (or even much longer) and we are all going to have to get used to the added risk in our daily lives whilst trying to maintain social distancing as best as possible.

Hopefully there will be better treatments soon, but the virus isn't just going to go away.

the patients waiting in a&e waiting room has masks on! So did a few patients I seen outside smoking did too!

There's every chance they had their own masks and they weren't supplied by the hospital. You brought your own sanitiser.

Agree with the person who pointed out it's the same amount of risk as being in a shop!

Why were they there?

Suspected stroke..
covid19 symptoms
Heart attack
Sepsis
All manner of things!

Just because they wouldn't see your child with his injury doesn't mean they were not seeing urgent patients and I mean really deaths door urgent. I can't speak for your hospital but I can speak for mine, we've divided our A&E into 'Hot' and 'cold' so anyone with anything remotely infectious goes into the hot area, and anyone else is left in the waiting area.

Realistically it might have been that the bed manager had decided that no more patients are to be seen in that particular area as they were at capacity and you can't get rid of covid 19 patients as easily as you would elderly bed blockers, so sent you to another hospital.

Even if that was true, staff are going to cleaning the waiting rooms constantly (domestics) and washing their hands constantly so the risk of contracting it in A&E is absolutely minimal. I work in icu and wear ppe but before this kicked off massively I worked a bank shift in A&E helping anaesthetists to intubate patients (I'm an ODP) and we were told every 20 mins to wash our hands in addition to normal infection control procedures

I hope that puts your mind at rest

Oh and if a patient is suspected even minimally to have covid19 they are given a mask and told not to sit anywhere near anyone else, until we confirm or rule out covid 19 this was a few weeks ago but we'd try and rush them through to a special pod area or at least the ward in a&e so all the people with temps and coughs are masked and separated immediately

OP you did ask - yes, you are being stupid