To think they should have let me in?

[allinadaystwerk]

Had to bring my 95 year old to the hospital after a fall. They will not let me accompany her to see the dr. Any info they relay to her will be lost as she is a tad deaf forgetful. They will also not get the full story. Shes been in there 30 mins now and I am worried sick outside. Aibu to feel like they should have let me go in with her? I protested and tried to explain but they would not budge

Glad to hear you were able to get an update from the Dr. It's not a blanket nationwide policy - I've been able to accompany my elderly father to two appointments recently in our local hospital. But I wasn't able to accompany him for a CT scan, because the room was too small to maintain a distance. I guess each hospital has it's own risk assessments and policies. But it's very worrying when a confused elderly person is having to manage without help.

It's an utterly shit situation. I would desperately love to be able to sit and hold my terminally ill mother's hand.
So would the person with the parent with dementia
So would the parent of the child with special needs etc etc etc

Everyone in hospital has some kind of need. If they made exceptions, the hospital would be full of visitors. That's why they are being so robust about keeping people out. It is utterly utterly shit, but I understand why they are doing it.

Which is fine providing they are ensuring they are giving tip top nursing and pastoral care.

This is absolutely idiotic and like another user said, has no common sense.

If you went in there with her she would have felt less confused and scared, but apparently her feelings don't matter, only covid matters right now.

What if in order to help her they needed to ask her questions that she doesn't know the answers to as she is forgetful but you know the answer?

You can't make these decisions with covid and only covid in mind, you have to look at everything.

This policy made sense in April when we thought the hospitals will get overwhelmed but it makes no sense now.

It is horrible but like others have said it's a massive reduction in risk for her and the other patients. We have an assessment bay of 5 patients so if everyone was accompanied then that's double the risk of spreading and twice as hard to socially distance. We have a seated assessment room that could have 30ish people at any time therefore again doubling the risk. And everyone feels that they should have someone in with them, it's totally understandable, I would struggle in hospital on my own. Even before covid i would spend my day sending relatives away from our assessment room because there wouldn't be enough seats for patients/someone would faint because there were so many people and the room was too hot.

If a patient has a genuine need to be accompanied we would absolutely put that in place and usually have to try and find a single room somewhere but obviously it's the NHS and there are limited beds. Think of patients who are in custody who need to be accompanied by 2 police officers/prison guards or patients transferred to main hospital from mental health who often require constant supervision from a trained mental health nurse. Theres not a week gone by where we haven't had at least one of those patients and that's a lot of extra people on the ward and as a result a .massive increase in risk of transmission.

Hospitals have to have a blanket policy for all

Of course they don’t. They have to have a policy that makes reasonable adjustments for vulnerable people. Having an elderly patient who can’t take responsibility for their own care because they are confused and unable to discuss their situation is dangerous for the patient. You can’t risk patient care simply because there is a global pandemic. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

Of course they don’t. They have to have a policy that makes reasonable adjustments for vulnerable people. Having an elderly patient who can’t take responsibility for their own care because they are confused and unable to discuss their situation is dangerous for the patient. You can’t risk patient care simply because there is a global pandemic. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

Of course they have to. It'd be so difficult to manage every patients individual visiting needs. The situation we are in is just sadly the way it is. Same thing happened with my elderly relatives. I never said risk paitent care, is aid not allowing visitors. There is a difference and if youc an see that than its not me who is being ridiculous